A Change for the Lost
by Neeko96
Summary: <html><head></head>He watches over the town silently as the wounds of a prior mistake haunt him and the town as a whole. The empty streets serve little company. While the Light start to cook up a plan for the league and the citizens of Earth. The team moves to recruit a lost soul who may just want to be found more than he's letting on. Not a TUE fic.</html>
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, I'm gonna call this a whim fic cause I really only wrote it cause I recently got into Young Justice. I ended up read 2 other fics while the rest didn't really peak my interest at all. With that situation in mind, I wrote this... I like it so I'm going with it. This fic occurs before any PP and a couple episodes into YJ Invasion. Update information will be listed at the bottom, enjoy.=^-^=**

**Disclaimer: I'll say this only once so don't expect anymore. I do not own Young Justice, Danny Phantom or any affiliated labels, characters or events.=^-^=**

**Ch. 1 - Lost**

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><p>An old man looked into a window to see a young boy sitting on a building's roof. The boy had snowy white hair, black and white suit, and his green eyes watched over the city below with an underlying sadness. The old man shook his head as his body shifted to that of a young man and he held his staff up. The window changed to show a mountain on a harbor. "This should do nicely."<p>

"You requested something Clockwork?" The now child turned to see a man wearing blue with a golden helm and cape.

Clockwork was genuinely happy to see the man as he morphed into an old man. "Ah, Dr. Fate. It is good to see you."

The sorcerer nodded his head. "As am I to see you. I trust your time duties have not become too tedious?"

Clockwork gave a chuckle. "No, but they do have their moments, one of which is the reason I called you here." He lifted his staff and changed the screen to show a night city view. "See here, this boy." He pointed at the snowy haired boy now flying through the sky. "I'm sure he will prove useful in what's to come. Unfortunately, due to recent events he's a bit….. lost."

Dr. Fate looked on to the screen in curiosity. "And so, what do you ask of me?"

The time master was not surprised by the, straight to the point, attitude of the man. "You know I cannot reveal too much even to a lord of order." Nabu nodded in understanding. "I'm sure you've heard of that break in a few weeks ago at a tech corporation, DALVco.? Nightwing may have mentioned it in passing…. Or was it Batman?"

"Yes, it was Batman. He said the infiltrators were a pack of creatures."

"Ghosts." Clockwork corrected. "They were ghosts. This boy here is known as a halfa or half ghost. He currently holds the title of world's greatest ghost hunter, but like I said before, he's a bit lost. Due to an incident almost a year ago, he refuses to leave the city for anything even though there is nothing left here for him to do."

Dr. Fate raised a hand to his chin. "I see."

"I need you to give the suggestion of recruiting him to the team." He moved his staff again and it once again showed Mt. Justice.

Dr. Fate gave a curt nod and turned to Clockwork. "It is not often you request anything of me so I shall do what I can."

Clockwork nodded with a smirk. "That's all I can ask."

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><p>"And no unnecessary risks to the squad, that's an order." Spoke Nightwing to Robin just as he was about to leave with Gamma squad. Robin gave a curt nod before turning to join his team mates. Just as he was heading out, both Batman and Dr. Fate zeta tubed to the cave. "Batman?"<p>

The dark knight approached in his standard stoic fashion with Nabu just behind him. "I believe I have a lead on that break in from a few months ago. The one where with those creatures you couldn't identify stole the scanner from Vladco.

Nightwing seemed genuinely surprised by the news as he raised a hand to his chin. "Really?"

Batman nodded and then gestured to Dr. Fate. "A friend of mine was able to shed some light on them. They were apparently ghosts."

Nightwing became immediately skeptical at the idea. "You're kidding right?" One look at the stoic expressions upon the two leaguers answered that. "You're not kidding… Okay, so what would ghosts want with a scanner?"

Batman approached the computer and started to type. "What it could scan for maybe, but right now, I have no clue. Dr. Fate also told me of someone who could help should they strike again and they could also prove to be a valuable new recruit." A picture of a teenage boy appeared on the screen.

"Danny Phantom? Never heard of him."

Batman continued typing and a window with text appeared. "That's because most people outside of Amity Park just think he's a comic book character. Most of the news from Amity Park usually involves ghosts even the news broadcasts so most of it gets filtered out due to the credibility of ghost attacks."

Nightwing crossed his arms. "Yeah, I can't blame them. I still think it sounds crazy."

"Here we go." Nightwing looked up towards the screen along with Batman and Dr. Fate. "This is footage from Amity Park when a ghost army invaded it. Considering their history, it holds no credibility but Dr. Fate assures me it's all real." The three of them watched as the streets of Amity Park were filled by walking skeletons brandishing archaic weapons of several kinds. People screamed and ran in random directions as the horde marched down the streets.

"Okay… I guess I'm getting the picture…."

He then brought up footage of the aforementioned boy blasting many of the skeletons to pieces. "He is there resident hero."

Nightwing took a good look at the data over the screen. "Some of this implicates him as a menace to the city, even kidnapping the mayor."

Batman gave a nod. "I plan to go over this very thoroughly, but Dr. Fate requests that you recruit him."

Nabu gave a nod. "This is actually a request from a friend of whom I have known for centuries. I do not take his requests lightly and he is not someone who would wish harm towards you or the team."

The young man nodded in understanding as he approached the key pad. "I'm going to be going over this a bit more before I make a decision."

"So will I." Agreed Batman as he turned to Dr. Fate.

"That is satisfactory then. I was only asked to recommend him after all." The sorcerer then turned and headed back to the zeta tube.

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><p>The two of them spent quite a bit of time going over the data, shifting through rumors and hype. Nightwing was going over a sort of timeline he found when Mel came into the room. "Gamma has encountered a huge base full of Kroloteans."<p>

Nightwing hurried off after him into the ops room. Batman, however remained to look over the info. He found his eyes locked onto one specific part in particular involving an accident 10 months ago. Just as he finished reading it in silence Nightwing returned. "Gamma needs full back up, let's go." Without another thought, he and Nightwing quickly moved out to assist the team.

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><p>It was almost 2 days since their mission to Malina Island and Nightwing found himself a bit frustrated by it all. The league was taking serious damage public image. Then there was the whole Kroloteans thing, are they working with the light or are they just being used? They didn't seem to know about the bomb so it seemed more the latter. He was going through some more information on the computer when Robin got his attention. "Nightwing?" The teen turned to the boy wonder. "Blue Beetle and Wonder Girl have arrived."<p>

Nightwing gave a nod. "Thanks." And then he saw the two of them come in.

The blonde was quick to stand front and center, eager for a mission. "You called?"

"Yeah hermano."

"Yes I did." He then turned back to the computer. "We're going on a recruitment mission."

Blue Beetle seemed a bit intrigued. "Who?... Yes it does."

Wonder Girl gave him a curious look before turning to the screen herself. "So who is it?"

A picture of a teenager with white hair appeared on screen. "His name is Danny Phantom."

Blue Beetle immediately started to laugh a bit. "We're recruiting a comic book character?"

He held his stomach a moment before looking up towards Dick's serious expression. "He's not a comic book character."

"Of course he is ese. I have most of the original issues."

Nightwing turned back to the screen. "Well they're based on a real hero from Amity Park and we're going to go recruit him." He turned to Wonder Girl. "I picked you because of our success last time and Blue Beetle just happened to be free." He turned and looked at the armor clad teen. "Maybe we'll be able to use your familiarity with him to get his attention."

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><p>The sky over Amity Park was dark. The nearly full moon seemed to do little quell the shadows below. A quite ripple flies through under the watchful gaze of the stars. "So, why take the bioship?" Asked Wonder girl as she looked at the city below.<p>

"I wanted us to use a bit more stealth here and there are no zeta tubes close by. After the first few met with accidents we just stopped trying."

Blue Beatle crossed his arms. "So is this guy dangerous or something? I mean if he's anything like the comic book, we shouldn't have to worry at all….. No we wouldn't. No. We. Wouldn't. You didn't even read them!"

Nightwing cleared his throat a bit to get Blu's attention. "Anyway, recent information shows he's been hard to track lately. Not even the Amity Park local news has been able to get him on camera unlike the year before when he would appear almost everywhere."

"Wonder what changed." Wonder girl wondered aloud just before Nightwing stopped the ship rather suddenly.

"What's up hermano?"

Nightwing brought up a scan of the area. "I thought I saw something move." He seemed a bit confused. "We haven't even gotten to the location yet."

"Then let's keep going." Suggested Blu as he laid back a bit in his chair. The team continued on and was right around a quiet suburban neighborhood when the ship suddenly stopped once again only this time the passengers were a bit more shaken up. "What was that ese!?"

Nightwing quickly got himself together. "Not sure…. I'm not getting anything on the scanners, and the ship won't move."

"And I think I know why!" Shouted Wonder Girl as she pointed to a silhouette slowly forming in front of the ship. Nightwing was the next to make contact with the slightly angry pair of toxic green glowing eyes.

"What are you doing here! Who are you!?"

Blu got up from his seat and looked at the hostile teen in curiosity. "Can he actually see us?"

"He shouldn't be able to…. Hold on." Nightwing then started the ship on a reverse course, but the ghost boy wouldn't let that go. He flew up and started to push the ship down from above. The passengers were shaken a bit as the ship was slowly lowered to street level.

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to try and stop him?" Asked the blue clad teen. He seemed a bit distraught as the ship shook upon hitting the ground.

"No…. I think we should play this a bit more carefully." With a simple movement of his hand the ship became visible. "Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle, we're going to go out and greet him." The two of them traded wary glances before giving nods. Nightwing opened the back hatch and the ramp went down.

The ghostly teen was waiting for them just outside, still not all that happy at their intrusion. "Hmmm…? Almost thought I was going to having some of those alien problems."

Nightwing greeted him with the best smile he could muster as he outstretched his hand. "Hello Danny Phantom, I'm Nightwing, it's good to meet you."

Danny seemed a bit confused at first. He never expected these strangers to know his name. "You know me?" He gave a wary glance at the two behind him as well.

"Yes and this is Blue Beetle and Wonder Girl. We came here to talk to you."

Danny crossed his arms as he allowed his feet to touch the ground. "Really?... About what?" He then turned his gaze to the ship. "And why were you sneaking in like that?" He asked in an irritated tone as he pointed to the ship.

Nightwing remained calm though, knowing full well that what he does next may be the deciding factor. "We just didn't want to attract any attention."

Danny scoffed at them. "Well, you got mine. Make a note, camouflage doesn't mean invisible." Danny took another few minutes to look at the ship. He'd never seen anything like it before and so it intrigued him a bit. "Anyway, so what did you need to talk to me about?"

As Nightwing responded he noticed the boy seemed tense and on edge, almost as if he was waiting for something. "We wanted to recruit you for our team. A couple of the Justice Leaguers believe you would be a good addition to the team."

Danny raised a brow with advent curiosity. He's been so preoccupied lately he didn't give much thought to anything that went on outside the city let alone the Justice League since it had never actually come to Amity Park. "Join your team?" Nightwing saw the interest in his expression as the hostility seemed to fade. Unfortunately it was short lived as the boy's eyes became refocused and stern. "Sorry, but I can't. I can't leave the city…. Not again." The last part was mumbled as he turned his head away.

"You don't have to just leave."

"Yeah hermano, you can come back. We just wanted you to help us out when you can you know?"

Danny turned back to him with a curious expression but before he could speak a loud bark was heard from down the street. The four of them turned to see a large green dog running down the street. Only a few seconds later an explosion erupted from just behind the green specter destroying a few buildings in the process. "Cujo!" Danny immediately flew up and toward the ghost dog as he continued to run up the street for dear afterlife.

Just as Danny got close to him several figures emerged from the smoke. "We've got a visual on Phantom!" "Fire at will!" The armored soldiers marched through the smoke towards the irritated halfa. They fired several shots that Danny was able to dodge relatively easily as he took a spot to cover Cujo.

He placed up a barrier and glared at the soldiers. "Will you guys just leave me alone!?"

One soldier stepped forward and stopped firing. He lifted his hand to stop the others so he could talk. "We have told you before, we cannot allow any specter to roam free. You especially, Phantom." Danny could practically see the man smirking through his helmet. "And now we will be rid of you." He lowered his hand again and the other soldiers began firing again.

Danny was surprised when Nightwing ran to his side in a fighting stance. "What's going on with these guys?"

"They don't seem to like you huh?" Wonder girl stated as she used her arm bands to reflect away any stray shots towards her. Blue Beetle was bringing up the rear and dodging any fire towards him.

Danny gave a sigh as he took a moment to explain while keeping both hands up for his shield. "They're the GIW, the secret government agency dedicated to riding the world of ghosts. They are not fans of mine….."

"Noted ese."

Danny took a moment to think. "Of course the fact that I show them up whenever they come to town doesn't help…. In all honesty, they suck at their job." Danny then noticed the men part and two holding a large cannon came forward.

"That….. doesn't look good."

"Nope." The halfa responded as he watched the weapon charge up. The four of them scattered with Danny pulling poor Cujo out of the way. The dog seemed to be sorting an injured paw.

"Attention heroes! If you continue to aid the ghost you will be considered as interfering with federal agents! Clear away now!"

Nightwing glared at them a bit as he raised his eskrima sticks. "What kind of federal agents fire in civilian neighborhood.!?" The soldier holding the bullhorn didn't respond before the others began shooting again. The team leader turned to Danny. "If you come with us, we can get you out of here. We can talk about the details once we're not being fired on.

"Yeah, I don't think these guys are going to let up… no way! What's with you and violence?!"

Danny fired off a few ecto-blasts to get the Soldiers off their feet. "I told you before, I can't leave."

Blu unleash a sonic blast on the men which was able to stop the fire for a brief moment. "Well do you want to get blasted to bits?"

Danny rolled his eyes at the bug themed hero. "These guys pull stunts like this all the time. As a matter of fact, I was expecting this just before you guys showed up in that weird ship of yours. This whole area is abandoned and it's been that way for months now. That's why I hang around here, because when they attack, they don't really think about the people around them."

Wonder Girl took a look at the eerily quiet streets. "Is that why there aren't any lights on in the houses?" D

anny flew up toward the men as they sprawled to get themselves together. He lit his hands up in a blue energy and began to freeze all of their weapons into ice blocks. "Curse you Phantom!" The lead operative shouted as he motioned for a retreat. They didn't have much of an option since their weapons were all down. The other three teen made their way over with intrigue.

"Why is this place abandoned? It doesn't look that old." Noted Wonder Girl.

Danny turned to face the rubble of the buildings that were destroyed. "That's because ground zero is 3 miles that way. No one wants to live anywhere near that place."

Nightwing raised a hand to his chin. "I think I do remember something happening…. I read it earlier. Some major accident about ten months ago right?"

Danny gave a sad nod. "Yeah…" When he turned his gaze back to the group, his eyes widened and he dove for Wonder Girl. "Get down!" Before anyone knew what happened Cassie was one the ground with Danny laying limply on top of her. His suit had a burn mark on his upper back and the halfa could be heard groaning slightly.

"What the…?!" Nightwing looked up to see two of those agents standing on a nearby roof with one of those cannons. One of them motioned for more to come and he glared at the sight. He looked back down at Danny as Wonder Girl sat up and rolled him over in her lap.

"I don't think he's conscious anymore….." Before anymore could be said a white ring appeared around the boys midsection and it spread across his body. Before long black hair turned white, a jumpsuit became tattered street clothes and the otherworldly glow faded to reveal a tired teen.

"Wow ese….. what was that?"

"I have no idea…" Commented Wonder Girl in complete shock.

Nightwing looked at the boy in curiousity but was knocked out of his thoughts as he heard the hard clatter of boots in the short distance. He didn't have much time to think about all that had happened but he knew two things, this boy save one of his team and he didn't deserve whatever awaited him should they leave him behind. "Grab him and let's go Wonder Girl." He then stood and made a bee line for the bio-ship with Blue Beetle. Wonder girl flew behind with the dark haired teen in her arms as requested. As soon as she flew off with Danny Cujo got up and followed, not wanting to be left behind.

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><p><strong>Okay, that's chapter 1. More chapters will be longer at least a little bit and I'm sorry if you didn't like it. I am also not going for angsty Danny at all so if that's what you want, I suggest looking at another story. For those of you who are curious, I plan to hold cannon pairings for the most part but cross overs are made for fun pairings too. <strong>

**As for my update frequency, I update on priority. Priority rises based on reviews. Now before anyone says I'm just a review grabber, what I'm actually looking for is an insightful response showing you actually read into this or if you liked it or not. Questions can also be directed in those too. My story priority will be posted on my profile page if you want to see where this one stands though its currently at the bottom of the list.**

**Thx again for reading and I hope you will leave a review of what you thought about it.=^-^=**


	2. Chapter 2 - Problems

**Okay, so I did get a decent respose so that's why ya'll get chapter number 2. Aside from that, this story rank 4 on my priority list so it may be awhile before I update again, but I hope you enjoy it all the same. Also, Super Boy appears in this chapter and so I want to warn you THIS IS NOT SLASH! I'm using the 'clone with anger management issues' part of him in this chap but he'll be better later. Besides, he's justified in how he acts so just enjoy the right. I actually like Super Boy quite alot. He's my third favorite. Anyway, enjoy.=^-^=**

**Ch. 2 - Problems**

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><p>Nightwing entered the living room area of the base to see both Jaime and Wonder Girl sitting on the couch talking with Beast Boy. "So he's a ghost?"<p>

Jaime raised a hand to his chin. "That's what I thought but its realmente extrano. It's like he turned into another person. I mean I've heard of costume changes but this one was out there."

Beast Boy scratched his head. "Sounds cool I guess."

Cassie gave a nod and then noticed Nightwing. "Well? How is he?"

Dick placed one hand on his side as he explained. "He appears to be fine. Black Canary is looking him over and Batman should be here any moment."

Beast Boy stood up. "So we have a ghost on the team now?"

Nightwing gave a hesitant nod. "Sort of….. I'm not too sure if he's a ghost or a meta-human with ghost abilities. Back inside the medical bay he was giving off every reading of an average human give or take some stress levels. Also, he hasn't agreed to join yet."

"Can I meet him?" Asked the excited shape-shifter.

"Later, he's still unconscious for the moment. Once we've had a chance to talk to him, then I'm sure you could say hi."

Wonder Girl noticed he seemed to be looking for something and questioned him. "What's wrong?"

"Have either of you seen that dog? I didn't think I could lose track of something that big."

"Come to think of it, didn't the dog just disappear when we got back?" Wonder Girl then turned to Jaime who just shrugged. "Got me ese."

Nightwing then turned to the sound of a zeta tube and Batman stepped out with Dr. Fate just behind. "Where is he?"

Asked the Dark Knight as he headed over to his protégé. Nightwing started to lead them both away. "In the medical bay. He seems to be fine for the moment."

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><p>The first sensation he felt was a throbbing. It started around his back and rippled through his body. The next thing was an itchy sensation. It was like wearing wool in the summer. The still boy on the bed then began to stir. Slight twitches turned to strained movements as his right arm rose to his head. His eyes fluttered open a bit but remained mostly closed due to the bright light of the table next to him. "Where….?" He muttered to himself. His eyes began to clear and he then saw a woman in the room with him.<p>

The minute this registered in his mind he tensed up and then took to surveying the room a bit. He understood that this was some sort of medical room. If it had been some sort of lab, like he initially feared, he wouldn't be allowed to move. The blonde at the monitor seemed preoccupied enough that Danny decided to take his opportunity. There's no way I'm sticking around this weird place. He thought as he made himself invisible and climbed off the bed. His next thought was escape as he quickly phased through the nearest wall.

Once outside in the deserted hallway he relaxed enough to notice the black bangs matting his forehead. He pulled a few of them in front of his eyes to get a better look. "Great…. I must've morphed back when I blacked out. Just great…" He then found himself crouching after a sharp pain erupted from his back. "Damn…." He cursed as he pulled himself back up. "Whatever those idiots hit me with must've been something." His eyes then widened as he thought about the GIW. Did they capture me?! No….. they're not stupid enough to not restrain me first thing, so where? "Guess I'll take a look around."

He looked down both ways of the hall before morphing on the spot to his ghostly alter ego. He floated up off the floor and slowly made his way down one side. He kept his ears sharp for any indications of someone headed his way and stopped just short of the hall's end. This was a wide open room with what looked to be a pool of water on the other side. He couldn't really put his finger on what this room could be for aside from some sort of secret subterranean hanger but that would be weird. He then noticed a large round object rolling out from another hall and instantly put on his invisibility. "Slow down Sphere!" A young man came walking just behind it and a wolf behind him.

"It's huge!... Not like I should be freaked now that I think about it." The boy jerked his head in the halfa's direction immediately along with the wolf. Note to self, dogs have good hearing….. and apparently so does that guy. The boy then began his approach with a growling wolf behind him causing Danny to try to retreat back into the hall. The monster white wolf wouldn't hear of it and although it may not have heard where he was, he could certainly smell him.

Danny found himself invisibly pinned to the ground in seconds where he squirmed for a bit under the canine's scrutinizing nose. When he started baring his fangs, that's when Danny decided to counter attack and kicked the dog off him by his belly. "What the?" Commented a surprised Super Boy. Wolf attacking air was weird enough but getting thrown off by it? There was definitely something there. He reached through the seemingly empty space and was surprised when he grabbed what felt to be fabric. He gripped it tight and proceeded to strong arm it across the hanger. He stopped when he hit the wall with the invisible intruder being pinned in place. When he heard a groan his anger felt justified. "Who are you!? What are you doing here?!"

Danny reluctantly dropped his invisibility to show Super Boy had him by his collar. "As if I even want to be here!?" Super Boy was caught by surprise by the boy's sudden appearance and released his grip almost instinctively. Danny took his chance and flew back over to the hall where he was blocked by the large wolf from before. "Aww, come on!" He griped as he prepared for the wolf to charge again, but before the wolf even leaped from the ground a loud bark was heard and the white canine found himself knocked through the air.

The snarling green dog didn't give him much chance to recover as the dog pinned the wolf to the ground. The scene looked a big one sided considering Cujo was around three times the wolf's size but the wolf was surprisingly strong and fought back with more strength than what was thought possible. Super Boy instantly ran to his pal's rescue and charged the dog only to pass harmlessly through him. "What….?" He asked in a bewildered tone. He turned to see the growling match between the two and it seems as though the large dog hadn't even noticed him.

After a few more flailing paws hit the air, Cujo was able to scoop the wolf up into his mouth and shake him around. Super Boy then jumped at him again only to feel the same sensation as before only this time it only mad him madder as he turned to the ghostly teen. "Is this your doing!?" Before Danny could even answer he was charged by the Kryptonian.

* * *

><p>"I had Black Canary watch him until you got here." Nightwing explained as the three of them entered the medical bay. He turned to see The mentioned blond tapping away at the monitor.<p>

"Where is he?" Asked Batman as both he and Dr. Fate looked over the room.

Nightwing turned with a confused expression. "I put him on….." He stopped cold once he noticed the empty beds and then turned to Black Canary. "Black Canary, where did he go?"

She turned and raised an eyebrow. "What are you….." She too seemed confused by the empty beds. "That's strange… No one has entered or left since you left before."

Dr. Fate turned back to the door. "Since he does bare the powers of a ghost, he most likely walked through the wall instead of using the door."

Nightwing instantly face palmed. "Damn it….. I should have thought of that."

Batman made his way to the door with Nabu. "He shouldn't be too far away. Let's go."

Just as the three of them left the medical bay the base seemed to shake causing them all to freeze. "What was that?"

"Sounds like its coming from the hanger let's go!" The Dark Knight shouted as he dashed off in the direction of said hanger with the other two behind him. When the trio arrived they noticed four more on lookers standing just inside the doorway. "What's going on!?" Demanded Batman as he arrived first.

Jaime, who was on the far left spoke up. "Looks like Phantom and Super Boy are going at it ese." Wonder Girl seemed equally interested as she watched the spectacle. While Robin watched with a disapproving expression.

Beast Boy seemed to be really enjoying himself. "Go Super Boy!" Batman, seeing no one else trying, decided to end the fight himself and stepped forwards just in time for another charge by Conner.

"Alright that's enough!" Yelled the ghost teen as he caught Super Boy by his shirt and threw him into the opposite wall. Conner fell to the ground and left a webbed crack in his wake. He watched the kryptonian for a moment before turning his gaze to the on lookers. "You!?" He flew up and over. "You brought me here!" Danny waved an accusing finger at Nightwing as he spoke. "Where am I and why did you bring me here!?"

The young man responded by raising his hands in a defensive yet calm manner. "It wasn't my intention to upset you by bringing you here, I just didn't think it would be fair to just leave you."

"Especially after you took that hit for me." Wonder Girl added while giving an approving nod to Nightwing.

"Yeah hermano, who knows what those guys would have done."

Danny's anger faded a bit and he allowed his feet the touch the floor. After a short self-evaluation he raised his eyes back to Nightwing. "Then I guess…. I should thank you." He rubbed the back of his neck as he said that. A groan was next heard from behind the group as Super Boy started to get up. Danny peeked behind to the guy he had just tossed around. "Oh….. and sorry about him too, but he kinda charged at me…."

Connor glared at him in agitation as he approached once again only calmer. "Just who are you?!"

Nightwing was the one to answer. "This is Danny, we brought him here so that we could talk about him joining the team."

Super Boy didn't seem too happy about that at all as he crossed his arms. "I caught him sneaking around and you want to let him join?!"

Danny raised a hand with an angry expression of his own. "In my own defense, I had no idea where I was… I still don't actually know now that I think about it."

Connor then glared back at the two dogs to see Cujo trying to keep wolf pinned down and having a real tough time of it. "You attacked wolf!"

Danny crossed his arms. "I don't know what you would do if a huge wolf jumped you but I fight back." Danny then floated over to the two canines. "Down Cujo!" The green bull dog quickly complied as it jumped off and sat at the heels of its master. "And for the record, I didn't tell Cujo to attack him, he did that on his own." Wolf rolled over and stood as he watched the ghost boy warily. He slowly made his way over to Connor while still glaring at the two of them.

Connor, finding he had nothing else to really complain about just turned away towards Nightwing who was now making his way over to Danny with Batman and Dr. Fate. "Do you think we could just talk?"

"I have a few questions for you." Batman added in with his typical poker face.

"Rest assured, if you choose not to join, we will take you back to Amity Park."

Danny took a moment to think it over before giving an approving nod. "Fine, but you better take me back." He warned as he walked past the three of them.

* * *

><p>The four of them were now in the ops center where Batman was typing away at the computer interface while Nightwing was busy trying to get through to Danny. "Now I'm not trying to force you into anything, I just want you to give it some good thought. We could really use the help."<p>

Danny shook his head. "I told you, I can't afford to just leave. I should have just bolted back there…. Had I any clue exactly where we were." He looked around in an agitated fashion.

Nightwing raised a brow at his reason. He remembered that being his reason before but it's not like the town's going to disappear in the next few hours. "What has you so worried? It's like you think Amity Park won't be there when you get back." That hit a sore spot for Danny as he refused to make eye contact. Dick noticed his body language seemed to shift to that of guilt.

"Perhaps it has something to do with the incident 10 months ago." Batman deducted as he continued his search. "A massacre that took the lives of over 200 citizens."

Nightwing's eyes widened when he noticed Danny's fists tighten at his side. He then turned to the screen with surprise in his eyes. "How come that didn't come up in our last search?"

Batman pulled up an article. "Probably because the GIW were trying to cover the whole thing up. They've called for martial law in Amity Park though the mayor refuses to cooperate."

"Who would?" Danny remarked with venom in his voice. "It's not like they've done anything useful." He then started listing off reasons with his fingers. "They're never there when you need them, they screw up way too often, not to mention they have a complete lack of common sense on the subject they are supposed to be experts at. It's like they learned about ghosts from some paranoid shut in. They only thing they really have going for them is their equipment." He finished as he crossed his arms. "So I hope it's not a surprise that I don't trust them especially considering how often their 'job' ends in me being shot at, blasted out of the sky and sometimes strapped to a lab table." He added air quotes in as he spoke.

The two vigilantes traded glances as they took in the boy's agitated rant. Danny, realizing that he just went off on them, took a breath and apologized. "Uh… sorry-"

"No apologies necessary Daniel." Danny seemed to cringe slightly at the name as Dr. Fate placed a hand on his shoulder. "My old friend tells me all about these things, you see, and that you should be here, not there."

Danny looked at him as if was completely crazy and so Nabu decided to give the boy a hint. He raised a finger and started to form golden letters the first being C and the second being W. It only took a moment for Danny to make the connection and it only made the boy angry. His hand glowed green and he swiped the letters out of the air. "You can tell him to go jump off a bridge!" And with that, Danny took off and phased right through the ceiling without another word. Dr. Fate seemed a bit confused at the outburst but understood the boy was angry.

Nightwing looked at the sorcerer and raised a hand to his chin. "Who is CW?"

Nabu shook his head. "He does not like for many to know of him. If you are meant to know, he will come to you." And with that mysterious description the lord of order departed towards the zeta tubes.

"Best to just drop it." Suggested Batman and as he rubbed his chin in thought over what he was reading.

Nightwing shrugged. "I guess that was a bust."

"Maybe not." Batman then zoomed in on one of the text boxes. "I just did a high end search on the GIW and found one of their most recent sponsors. Looks like Lex is up to something."

"Like what? The only major corporation there is Axiom labs and that's owned by DALVco. What could he possibly need in Amity Park." Asked Nightwing in a very serious tone. If Luthor wanted it, it can't be good.

Batman then pressed a key and turned to his protégé. "Looks like it's time to send a team to find out."

* * *

><p><strong>And there it is. Danny's still a bit miffed for reasons you have probably figured for yourselves and Batman is being... batman... Anyway, now you have a bit more to go on as for the 'incident' And more is still to be revealed! Hope ya'll are still interested to find out. Please direct any questions you have to me through a reveiw and feel free to give me some feed back. I know I may not be the best at portraying these characters but I'm trying my best!<strong>

**Also, I was wondering if I should Pair Danny with anyone. I don't plan to mess with AxKF or SBxMM so don't ask, but if you think there's someone else. One of my friends said I should ship him with Wonder Girl. Anyway, so I'll be looking for that feedback and thank you for reading, you are all so wonderful!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Infiltration

**Okay, so it took me longer than I'd hoped but I'm making each chapter a bit longer now so theirs the extra time. I also put in some dates and locations. Not all the time but where I think clarification might be needed. Anyway, I hope its to ya'lls liking.**

**Also, I don't like an angsty Danny, regardless of his situation, so there won't be alot of that. Sorry but as the writer that's the decision I've made. He'll have a bit in the begging but not much and you'll see that in this chapter too. Sorry but its not my cup of tea.=^-^=**

**Also a quick shout out to Guest Speaker who pointed out a huge plot flaw which I fixed immediatly. Thank you very much for pointing that out friend.=^-^=**

**Enjoy.=^-^=**

**Ch. 3 - Infiltration**

* * *

><p>Jan 8 - Mt. Justice<p>

"Where the heck is this place?" Danny asked himself as he flew over the coastal town. A few minutes was all he needed to find the sign reading Happy Harbor Rhode Island. He let out a frustrated sigh. "Great…. I'm around 5 states away…. Perfect." He turned his head back towards the mountain side. "Looks like I either go back and ask for a ride, or I fly home myself…." He then shrugged as he flew off in the aforementioned direction. "I need to grab Cujo anyway right?" He knew he could just whistle for him, but he also didn't want to have to fly all the way back to Amity Park.

* * *

><p>"So that's what we need to find out. Alpha squad is Miss Martian and Beast Boy. Beta is going to be Robin and Blue Beetle." Nightwing zoomed in on a picture of a large building on the monitor. "Alpha squad is going to infiltrate this building. Its run by a secret branch of the government known as the GIW."<p>

Beast Boy gave their leader a look. "GIW? What's that?"

"They're a crazy ghost hunting organization ese." Blue Beetle explained.

"Government owned and operated believe it or not." Nightwing added in. "Anyway, we need to find out what Lex Luthor wants from them. He's recently become one of their sponsors." He then clicked onto another image of a legal building. "Batman also needs us to check out the Mayor. Rumor has it he's being pressured to step down so that the GIW can issue Martial law in the city. I need Beta squad to try and sus out what Mayor Masters knows about the deal. Vlad Masters has never been one dwell on a lost cause so it may be important." Then with one button he turned the screen off. "Wonder Girl and Lagoon Boy will be back up in case something happens." The Atlantian let out a lite grumble at that but little else.

"Then I guess we're all set."

Nightwing nodded to the Martian but gave one more word of advice. "Yeah but be careful. I've been told they have a certain disregard for collateral damage so keep on guard for yourselves and for any civilians."

"Of course." She responded as she led the other five team members towards the hanger. Unknown to the team, an invisible spectator was watching over their briefing. Danny took this pristine opportunity and followed the team knowing full well they were his ticket back home without having to deal with asking. Holding the small dog in his hands, he was sure to keep him under control.

* * *

><p>Jan 8 – Amity Park<p>

After dropping off Beta team, Alpha and Gamma continued on towards the infiltration target. Miss Martian was sure to keep the ship cloaked as both she and Beast Boy departed leaving Wonder Girl and Lagoon Boy to watch the Bio-ship. "Neptune's Beard!" The young Atlantian grumbled as the hatch closed behind Alpha squad.

Beast Boy transformed into a small bird as he followed Miss Martian towards a vent. "Keep small alright?" He gave a lite squawk in response and dove through the now open vent. Miss Martian simply shifted her density so that she could pass through the roof. Upon arriving in a white hall of the building the Martian looked up to see a small lizard crawling along the wall.

She, while cloaked, floated along the hall until she can across a T intersection. She mentally thought over the layout of the building before she mentally told Beast Boy which way to go. "_It's left. We should come up to a room at the end of the hall with an interface for the mainframe."_ She then continued to float down the hall pausing only when two agents came by. It was obvious to her they were a security detail. Upon reaching the end of the hall she phased through the door and then cracked it open from the inside for Beast Boy once she found the room empty.

"_This is way easy right?"_ Beast Boy thought to his adopted sister.

_"Careful Beast Boy, things can always go wrong."_ She warned as she began working with the computer. After several failed attempts to simply access the console She was beginning to think this computer was just a dummy to trick those who would break in. The only thing available on the screen was a password box and any form of bypass seemed useless.

Beast Boy scratched his head as he watched her frustration build, but as he looked around for a possible way to help he noticed a small plastic rectangle on the floor. Upon further inspection he found it to have a swipe strip on the back and deduced it as being some sort of card key. An idea soon followed his realization as he quickly jumped up to the computer console and found the card reader in the back. "_Try this M'gann."_

The minute he swiped the card the menu came up and she gave the changeling a smile. "_Where did you get that?" _

He pointed to the other side of the room. "_Just found it on the floor over there. Some guard must've dropped it."_ M'gann raised a brow at that. She was obviously a bit suspicious all things considered, but she wasn't about to rush off on a might, when she finally had the information she needed in reach. Her job went smoothly after that, nothing stopping her from finding exactly what she needed. "_So, any bets on what Lex wants from these nut jobs?"_

She quickly scanned down a page before responding. "_Who knows….. whoa….. didn't even think of that." _

_"What is it?"_

She pointed to map at the bottom of the page. "_Apparently this whole martial law mess is just a cover so that they can get something from here."_

_ "Fenton Works?"_ Beast Boy read of the screen in his mind. "_What could they want there?"_

_ "I don't know."_ She thought back, "_But it has to be something big if they were going through all this trouble to get."_

_ "You'd think stealing it would be easier. Sounds more like Lex to me."_

She gave a nod of agreement before she placed in the storage drive and started to copy the files. "_They are after some invention owned by the company but the information is encrypted. Hopefully Nightwing can get it figured out."_ After a few minutes the transfer was complete and she took it out of the consol. "Let's go."

"And just where do you think you are going?" The two turned around to see several white suited agents blocking their path holding blasters too big to shake a stick at.

* * *

><p>Back with Beta Squad Robin and Blue Beetle find slipping into city hall a bit easy as they skulked down the halls. "No security?" "Got me ese." The armored teen then frowned and shook his head for seemingly no reason. Robin in the lead, they both quickly found their ways to the Mayor's office. "Wait….. would the mayor even be here? It's almost 7p.m."<p>

Robin gave a nod as he moved to open the door. "According to Nightwing he is." He then motioned to his lips to be silent as he pushed the door open. It made not even a sound but that didn't seem to help them at all.

"Now I wonder who my new guests are?" They hear a man say from inside of the room. They both froze up in shock but Robin recovered quickly and got Blue Beetle out of it. He stood up straight and entered the room with his teammate just behind. They were quick to meet eyes with a white haired, middle-aged man in a suit. He leaned back in his chair with a confident expression. He raised a brow as he got a better look at the teens. "Hmm? Heroes I presume? I can't imagine you being anything else in those outfits." He then leaned forward and pressed his fingers together over his desk. "To whom do I owe the pleasure."

Robin gave a side glance to his teammate before answering. "We just wanted to ask what you knew about the GIW and why they were trying to lock the town down. We understand that something big happened, but this response is more than overkill."

Vlad gave a short laugh as he turned and leaned on his arm. "True, but I never expected the Bat to take much interest. Let's face it, Amity Park isn't some big city like Gotham." He then gave the boy's a stern look. "And quite frankly, I don't believe this is any of your business. Now could you be good boys and leave my office? I'd elect to call security but I doubt it would do much good."

"Just hold on, maybe we can help each other?" Robin proposed. "The GIW are trying to get you to step down right?"

Vlad raised a brow but waved it off. "I know what you're getting at and believe me when I say, I'll be happy to get out of this backwater city."

His mood seemed to shift closer to anger as he said that which was easily picked up by the boy wonder. "So…. What are you still doing here? You own several major corporations, have mansions and even a private island. Why stay here? You're the only one between the GIW and Amity Park."

The man wasn't surprised by the question. Even the agent S, Chief of the GIW noticed the strange behavior. He turned from the boys before answering. "It's just something that has to be done. Hopefully by the time they force me down, that knuckle head would've moved on. Now if you wouldn't mind?" He almost spat as he turned back around. "I would like to get back to my paperwork. Please, do yourselves a favor, and don't get curious on your way out. I can assure you, there isn't any viable information in this building. Your friends on the other hand," He started with a chuckle. "They might need a hand with whatever they dug up."

"Beta squad! You're gonna want to get over here. We've got trouble." The message rang out as if Vlad had cued it himself. The two boys left after one quick glance at the mayor who smirked in response.

Just as the doors closed a voice came from behind. "Pompous as ever."

Vlad turned to meet a green steely gaze. "Ah, Daniel, how have you been hmm? I thought the GIW had caught you or something."

Danny scoffed at the man. "As if those morons could hold me." He then moved his gaze to the doors. "Ya'know, those two had a point, just what is holding you here? My mom's long gone pal, or are you that delusional?"

Vlad rolled his eyes in slight agitation. "Ah, your teen wit astounds me. Come Daniel, you must know you're just being stubborn at this point."

Danny was the one to roll his eyes this time. "This again, huh? Look Vlad I don't-"

"Daniel!" The millionaire practically shouted. "You need to wizen up! Stop being stubborn! You need to leave!"

Danny glared at the man. "No! I protect this town! If I leave-"

"What?! It'll be wiped off the map!? All the people will suddenly be gone? Even if that did happen, how would it be your fault! Powers or not, you have limits!" Danny couldn't find it in him to respond as he turned his gaze away. Vlad saw he may have pushed a bit and sighed. "Look Daniel, what happened wasn't your fault. Things happen."

"But I wasn't ….. there. Had I only been here protecting everyone then….."

Vlad shook his head. "Then what? You would have magically had the strength to fight them back? Those things were a natural disaster, they would have picked you apart." He placed a hand on his own shoulder. "Take it from someone who knows."

Danny shook his head. "No, I have to protect them. I can't let it happen again."

Vlad turned away. "So what? You're going to hover around here for the rest of your life having turf wars with the GIW?" Danny remained silent and Vlad turned back to him. "You need to move on."

Danny's agitation was obvious as he grumbled out a response. "That's the last thing I need to hear from the guy who stalked my Mom for 20 years."

Vlad was starting to lose his patience as he sat back down in his chair. This conversation wasn't knew. He had tried talking to the boy on several occasions. He heaved out a sigh as he raised a pen to the papers he was to sign. "Look Daniel, I can't make you do anything; you've more than proven that over the years, but I can still give you some advice. As the man who refused to move on, I'm telling you it's the worst mistake of my life. Regardless of how it may have looked on the outside, I loved your mother." He heard Danny laugh from behind. "It's only now that I see how foolish I was for not seeing it as a lost cause, but I do have one last way to make it up to her, and that's you boy."

Danny seemed confused a moment before his eyes widened. "Wait…. Me? That's why you won't step down?" He brushed his fingers through his bangs. "Have I told you that you're a frootloop?"

The man let out another frustrated sigh. "Make your jokes Daniel but you have to face reality. The GIW are getting smarter and I can't hold them off forever." When he didn't hear a response he turned to see Danny had vanished. "Hmm? Well…. Hopefully that did it. I can only explain so many times before broken record starts getting painful." He then looked down at the paper on his desk. It had large red lettering at the top that read "Notice of Dismissal" and let out another sigh as he leaned back in his chair. "You win this one Lex, but now it's my move."

* * *

><p>Beast Boy busted through three agents who were blocking his way as he ran through the hall. "This one too!?" "<em>This way Beast Boy!"<em> He turned to his left to see Miss Martian opening a door. The boy transformed and flew over as fast as he could.

"_These guys pined us down pretty quick huh?"_

_ "Yeah. I'm pretty sure that console had some sort of silent alarm in it." _They both flew down a stair case and busted through the door only to be met with two more agents. They both aimed their blasters and Beast Boy was barely able to stop himself from ramming right through them. "Gar!"

Before either of them fired the man on the left suddenly blindsided his partner with the blaster and knocked him out. He turned to the two intruders. "Follow me." He then turned on his heel and took off running stopping just short of a T intersection. When he looked to see them not moving he waved them over. "Come on already, do you want to get strapped to a lab table?" Miss Martian didn't trust him of course but Garfield hopped to it.

"What's going on?" She demanded as she followed her adopted brother towards the stranger.

The man peeked down the hall before responding. "I'm trying to get you out of here….. that is what you were trying to do right?"

"Yeah!" Beast Boy responded in an excited tone. "But why are you helping us, aren't you on their payroll?"

The man gave a laugh. "Appearances can be deceiving kid." He gave pause for a moment before dashing down the hall to the right. "We shouldn't be far from the main entrance."

"But they have to have this whole place completely locked down by now." Garfield stated as he followed in the rear.

"Yeah, but once we get to the front of the building I can get us out of here easy. It's the only part of the building that doesn't have shielded walls." They all dashed down the corridor soon enough they all saw what looked to be a color boarder on the walls. "See?" As soon as the man made it to the unprotected section the wine of blasters was heard. He froze a moment like a deer in the headlights with Beast Boy and Miss Martian at his back. "Uh-oh."

Two men stepped forward from the group of readied men, one white, one African American, both being bald. "Alright, that's the end of the line for all three of you. Hands where I can see'em." The three of them complied while all wearing unpleased expressions.

The man then whispered to his left, trying hard not to be obvious. "Hey kid…. Can you turn into a British Bulldog?"

"Quiet!" The Caucasian man yelled. He then stepped up with a smirk and raised a blaster to the face of the rouge agent. "No funny business Phantom."

The man smirked a bit. "So you really would shoot your own guy huh?"

Agent O glared at him. "He knew what he signed up for."

The man then let out a sigh. "Typical." Only a second later did the man seemingly flop to the ground to show Danny standing in his place, still with his arms raised. "You guys are always so trigger happy." Most of the men directed their guns at Danny now, considering him their biggest threat. Danny then gave a side glance to the boy who seemed rather surprised at the revelation.

One slight movement of his head and Garfield seemed to get the idea. He easily noticed the lack of weapons pointing in his direction. "_He wants me to transform. I think we should listen to him."_

M'gann wasn't completely against it. She was told about him, but at the same time she didn't complete trust him either. After a short moment to think it over she gave him the OK. "_Alright, I'll cover you. Beta and Gamma should be on their way."_

On that note Beast Boy morphed into the British Bulldog that Danny had requested and got quite a response from the men as he did. "It's the ghost mutt! Foamers at the ready!" Beast Boy leaped at one of the men and was soon covered in a green foam. Miss Martian then saw fit to destroy each of the weapons in succession. Danny was quick to snap into action by knocking agent O to the side and blasting at a few of the armored agents. Once the last foamer was taken out Beast Boy jumped out of the goo and shook it off much to the surprise of the agents. "The foam had no effect!"

Danny threw one of the agents towards the two still baffled by the sight. "Sorry but that's the wrong dog!"

"Reinforcements to the main hall!"

"Aw crud…" Danny wined as he quickly got a bead on the green teen. "Come on BB, we need to split!" He flew over and grabbed the boy, quickly flying him through the wall, much to Garfield's surprise. Miss Martian threw a few more aside before following suit and phasing through the wall. Once outside, however, it was like jumping from the frying pan to the fire. "I guess they are getting smarter…." Danny commented as he saw the small army that greeted him inside the fence boarders of the compound.

"Gamma squad ready for action!" Lagoon Boy fell out of the sky with Wonder Girl at his back to give their struggling teammates a hand.

Danny set Beast Boy down. "Friends of yours?" He recognized the blonde girl but the fish man….. not so much.

Miss Martian was quick to take the reins. "Alright, we just need to get out of the perimeter, we already have what we need."

"No problem Angelfish." Lagoon Boy responded as he punched his own fist. His muscles suddenly grew large and he charged the forces head on. Beast Boy followed his example in the form of a Rhino. Wonder Girl tried to take the high ground but quickly found herself surrounded by helicopters and large weapons pointed at her.

"Surrender! This will be your only warning!"

M'gann quickly backed up her teammate by bashing several of the copters together. "Sorry but try again." Agent K finally scrambled out of the building to see the teens tearing right through his men and growled in rage. He wiped out some sort of device and typed in a code. Large spikes poked up from the ground shocking all on the ground aside from the suited GIW troops.

While L'gann was stunned one of the men threw a capsule which formed a sticky adhesive pile at the atlantian's feat. Upon realizing he was stuck he shrunk down and tried with all his might to get free. "Neptune's beard!" Beast Boy was next as a constricting net was placed over him. He received a jolt from it every time he tried to move.

As soon as M'gann saw Beast Boy go down, she tried to rush to him but the GIW were keeping both her and Wonder girl busy with a constant barrage of fire. "Gar!"

"No worries ese!" "Were here to assist!" Both Blue Beetle and Robin jump into the action ready to kick some tail.

Danny let out a chuckle as he threw another agent. "More backup. That's kinda nice." Agent K saw them jump in as well despite his concentration being on Phantom and so he decided to spike the ground again. Neither of the boys saw it coming and were quickly stunned by the shock. Danny glared at the man and blasted the device from his hand the moment he got the chance. This unfortunately freed up on of the agents to get in a good shot and blasted him with some goo which made rather effective bindings around the halfa's torso. "Shit…."

He was quickly running out of ideas as he saw most of his allies down for the count until he looked up towards the Martian. He quickly recalled her ability to throw the helicopters around and an idea formed in his head. "Hey green girl!" M'gann certainly wasn't flattered by the title but it got her attention all the same. "You see that tower behind you? The one on the roof with the box under it?!" She scanned the roof and easily found what he was talking about. "Can you throw one of those helicopters at it!?" Though not quite sure of what he was getting at she listened regardless and in no time, a copter sailed towards the tower. An explosion ensued and then a secondary boom was heard. In seconds it seemed all the tech in the area was sparking up, including the battle suits the agents were wearing.

Chaos quickly followed as many of the men were besides themselves with how to remove the damaged and useless gear. The copters dropped out of the sky and the blasters were all fried. Danny took his chance and froze the goo that was holding him. He busted it off and flew over to L'gann. "Here you go." He held out a hand and blue energy shot out, freezing the goo at the Atlantian's heels.

He easily broke out of it afterwards. "Thanks!"

Miss Martian's first instinct upon seeing the disorder was to free Garfield, which was easy since the next had lost its power along with everything else. "Alright, let's go!" The Martian ordered and her team complied.

"Not so fast!" Agent O emerged from a crowd of the panicked men holding a switch. "You don't think it'll be that easy do you?"

Danny rolled his eyes as he flew in front of the team. "Sorry, but yeah." He then placed his fingers in his mouth and let out a whistle. Moments later and a large green monster dog jumped through a wall and pined the man down, crushing the device in his hands in the process. Danny couldn't help but chuckle as he watched Cujo tear the man's suit to shreds. The dog knew he wasn't allowed to really hurt him but the agent certainly didn't as he yelled for dear life. "Have fun rewiring the whole building again." Danny quipped as he floated back. "Come on Cujo!" Danny then flew off, passed the team and off through the darkening sky.

"I like him more every minute." Beast Commented looking back on the number he did on the agent, and trying to wipe off the remainder of the goo that he had been pelted with.

"Just who was that?" Questioned Lagoon Boy with his arms crossed.

"Come on L'gann, Nightwing was talking about him earlier." Responded Wonder Girl.

"That's Phantom, this is his town." Blue Beetle added in. "But…. How'd he get here so fast?" All he got were shrugs in response as Miss Martian delved into thought. Nightwing was talking about him to her just before the briefing. He was supposed to still be in happy harbor and Nightwing was still working out the whole recruitment deal. According to him, he seemed a bit quick tempered but Batman said it would be a good idea and when is Batman ever wrong? At least when it came to people.

"So I guess, mission accomplished?" Robin questioned looking over to Miss Martian.

She snapped out of thought and paused a moment. "Not quite….. we need to check something first."

* * *

><p>Danny now found himself standing beside a pile of rubble with an almost dead look on his face. He almost had to do a double take but the broken green sign in the wreckage only continued to prove the reality he was faced with. "They….. blew up my house….. well shit." He then took a look to his left and let out a sigh. "And the neighbor's too….. at least they moved out…" He then began to scratch at his head. "Brighter note…. I didn't really sleep in my room anyway."<p>

He flew over the wreckage while Cujo sat patiently at the perimeter. "Now I can only hope the reinforced walls of the lab saved it from caving in. He flipped over a few chucks of wall before he found the remains of the kitchen. Large portions of wall were still intact for the ground floor so it only made it more likely that the lab had indeed survived. He pushed away another piece of wall and found the broken in door of the lab. "This looks promising." He pulled it open with little effort but caused the door to break off a bit and headed down.

He gave a sigh of relieve when he saw the lab was relatively untouched aside from a few cracks near the door and some rubble at his feet. "I guess my luck isn't completely dry. He first headed over to the corner where he had set up his living area. He had long since stopped living in his room. The GIW could track his ecto-signature through the town which meant the only safe place was under the lab's ecto-proof walls. He also felt it would be easier to guard the portal if he stayed in the room, but it wasn't inconvenient to live in anyway….When it had power and running water.

He sifted through the blanket and under his duffle bag to find what he was looking for. Cujo hated going down into the lab and his squeaky toy was the only thing tantalizing enough to make him come. He gave the little bear a squeeze before heading to the stairs again. As he floated up he heard Cujo barking but not in warning so he thought he may have heard the toy from down in the basement. "Come on boy, I haven't even shown you yet….." He trailed off as soon as he saw who Cujo was barking about. The young heroes had somehow followed him home and truth be told, Danny was a bit speechless considering how good he had gotten at ditching a tail. "Hello….?" He questioned as the teens seemed equally surprised to see him.

"Phantom?" L'gann questioned while taking side glances at his teammates.

"What are you doing in Fenton Works ese? … and what happened?" Blue Beetle asked as he gestured to the rubble that was Fenton Works.

"Wait, this is Fenton Works?" Miss Martian questioned.

He gave a nod. "Yeah, see the address and there's the sign over there. Too bad it was destruido ese."

"Yeah." Danny responded while rubbing his neck. "If you look around this area, you'll find lots of damage and even destroyed houses. Give you one guess who works the demolition." He stated sarcastically as gave a laugh.

Beast Boy crossed his arms. "Looks like whatever it was the GIW wanted from this place is scrap by now.

Danny looked at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

The changeling turned to him. "Me and M'gann were looking over some of their files and found they were trying to get some top secret invention from Fenton Works."

Robin turned to him in interest. "What was it?"

"Files were encrypted." M'gann responded.

Danny gave a chuckle and pointed behind him. "Actually Fenton Works is in the basement of the house and it's still in one piece." That caught the whole teams attention as the followed M'gann over towards the halfa. "Just watch your step." He then proceeded to lead them down the stairs to the dimly lit lab. The first thing most of them noticed was the random little pieces of tech littering the tables, especially the one on the far wall. Miss Martian, however, seemed far more interested in the large intention in the back wall. The octagonal opening seemed strange to her. "Sorry but business shut down a while ago, feel free to look around though."

The Martian took a good look before turning to the ghost. "So, do you know what they wanted?"

Danny shrugged. "Could be a number of things really. They've already stolen half the patents Fenton Works had. Remember the antenna you destroyed? That was the amplifier for the massive ecto-converter box just below it. When you cut of the flow abruptly it causes a feedback wave which is what burned out all the tech."

"No way!" He turned to see Blue Beetle holding up a thermos. "It's one of those ghost catching thermoses! Muy Fresco!"

He held it over to Show Beast Boy who seemed equally interested. He then took another look at the tech on the table. "I was gonna take this card key but maybe something in here would make a cooler souvenir."

"Do you live here?" Wonder Girl questioned while pointing to the cozy corner.

"Kinda." The ghost responded. "Walls of the lab make a good cover. Good thing too, cause if I was still on the second floor my stuff would be under a pile of rubble."

"Technically still is." Robin pointed out as he gestured to the roof.

"Point taken." Danny admitted as he took a seat in one of the lab chairs.

_"Something wrong sis?"_ Questioned Beast Boy via the telepathic link.

She gave him a reassuring nod. "_Not really….. just a bit confused. The GIW seemed to be going through a lot of trouble to get whatever was here, but I don't see much."_ She then found her eyes wandering over to the opening in the wall. "What's that?"

Danny tensed a moment at the question before answering. "Broken… nothing important anyway."Miss Martian could feel he was keeping something back but when she tried to pry a bit into his mind she quickly found his toxic green eyes glaring at here and it made her uneasy. "Excuse me?"

She dropped her attempt tried to play it off. "Sorry what?"

Danny raised a brow. "… never mind then."

M'gann then heard a buzzing in her ear as Nightwing made contact. "Mission status?"

She tapped the receiver and responded. "Complete. I was able to get some data on the motives. We are currently checking out a lead with Phantom."

The teen seemed surprised. "Phantom's with you?"

"Yeah, he helped us out quite a bit when things got complicated on our way out of the building."

"Happy to hear. I was a bit curious when he never came back as to how he was gonna get back to Amity Park."

"Stowing away on your ship was easy enough." Danny commented from the chair beside M'gann. He seemed to have been eves dropping on the whole thing.

"What was that?" Nightwing asked from the other end.

"He said he stowed away. He was listening in on us."

Danny gave a chuckle. "Hard not too when the topic is me."

Nightwing gave pause before asking Miss Martian to allow him to speak to Danny. "Just for a sec alright?"

She nodded and handed the com to Danny who took it a bit hesitantly. "Hello?"

"Danny, this is Nightwing remember?"

"Oh yeah, tall guy in the domino mask."

He heard a laugh on the other end. "Have you given anymore thought to invitation? Miss Martian said you were a team player when things got tight."

"To be honest? Not really; haven't really had a moment for that."

"If you're worried about Amity Park, like I said earlier, you can come and go. I understand the city is your fist priority. We're just asking if you'd like to help out."

Danny found himself rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, I appreciate that….. Now that you bring it up though I guess the offer sounds good, I guess." He spoke in a sort of shy tone as he remembered how he'd stormed out earlier. "Sorry about earlier…. I was angry at someone else."

Nightwing's tone remained relaxed. "No problem, but could you come back with Miss Martian and the team? We can handle the details here." Danny gave a long pause after that which confused vigilantly. "Danny?"

"Sorry…. I kind of feel bad asking but you guys wouldn't happen to have a spare room would you? My house got blown up while I was gone."

* * *

><p><strong>I liked the ending there. It just seemed like the best place to stop ya'know? Hope this chapter was okay, it certainly was long... anyway, I would appreciate it if you could take a moment to review and let me know if I made any mistakes or simply tell me what you liked or didn't like. Much ableiged. =^-^=<strong>


	4. Chapter 4 - Exiled

**Okay so Ch. 4, I have a few things I need to get squared away about how I plan to have this story go but I'll wait until the end to go over them. Please enjoy.=^-^=**

**Ch. 4 - Exiled**

* * *

><p>It's safe to say Nightwing was speechless at the revelation. He thought Danny's worry was a bit misplaced, but for something like that to actually happen overnight? Certainly a surprise to him. Once over the slight shock he was more than happy to comply. The base had plenty of room considering it already had several borders and one more wouldn't be a problem. After getting a few things packed up the team plus one headed up from the crumbling basement. "So I guess that's it ese? Got to say it'll be cool working with you." Blue Beetle stated as he helped Danny with one of the boxes he'd packed.<p>

His belongings only consisted of a couple large boxes and the duffle bag where he kept his clothes. Blue Beetle placed the box down and Danny copied him, not being all that sure about how the ship was arranged. Danny rubbed the back of his neck before answering. "Really? I mean, I don't know…. I've never really worked on a team before…. Least not one like this."

"No worries hermano, I'm pretty new myself."

"Is that everything Phantom?" M'gann asked as she levitated by the bio-ship.

Danny gave a nod as he turned back towards the rubble that was his home since before he could remember. Memories and reminders that littered the hall were now buried, which in Danny's opinion, wasn't such a bad thing. He hated being reminded every time he walked through his front door. He then noticed the large green dog laying down while watching him curiously. "Oh… right. Come on Cujo!"

"Okay, not that I'm down on the dog or anything, he's sweet, but how do you expect to get him into the ship?" Wonder Girl asked. This dog was weird, that was for sure. Back when she first came to Amity Park the dog somehow followed them back but it disappeared just before takeoff.

"It's not a problem. The bio-ship can compensate for its size."

Danny waved it off. "Its fine, you don't have to."

Blu gave a nod in agreement. "So this is that ghost dog from issue 10 right, the one who changes sizes?"

Danny raised a brow at the armored teen. "That's still weird man….." He then turned to the dog who was sitting in an expectant position and peering down at his master. "Alright Cujo down." He commanded as he lowered his hand which was flat and facing the ground. The dog complied with a bark and shrunk down inside the large collar which followed suit. He got several surprised reactions as the little dog held his sitting position while waging his tail. "See, no problem."

Wonder Girl kneeled down to the monster dog turned puppy. "Aww, he's so cute now!"

She easily picked him up before Danny could warn her. "Wait he's-" Too late as he coated her face in slobber. The dog, though extremely protective, loved people, and was far to eager to show it. Her predicament got a few laughs from the team as she tried to wipe away the absurd amount of slobber after placing the dog back down. "He gets a bit… over excited….?" Danny tried in apology. It did little to make Wonder Girl feel better as she pulled at a bit of damp hair sticking to her face. "I….. let me help." Danny proposed as he laid one finger on her shoulder. Before she even realized what he'd done she was translucent and the slobber was now a small puddle on the ground. He moved his hand away and she became solid again causing her to take a second glance at herself.

She scrutinized her arm a moment before thanking him. "Thank you….?" She just couldn't keep the confusion from her voice. "What was that?"

The Danny was confused. "What was what?"

"I wasn't….. it just fell right off….. right?"

Danny figured where she was going but still seemed a bit confused. "What? The slobber? I just figured you wouldn't want to have dog slobber on you so I made you intangible." L'gann seemed equally astonished as Danny looked around with Robin joining in. "What's the big deal? Doesn't Megan do that?"

She shook her head as she landed by the halfa. "Actually for me its density shifting. I can't share that with another person like you just did."

Beast Boy was more excited than confused. "That's how you got me out of the building right?"

Danny responded with a nod and Blue Beetle posed a question. "So can you do that with your invisibility too?" Danny raised a brow in confidence as he placed a hand on Blu's shoulder. Seconds later the teen disappeared from the visible spectrum much to his own delight. "Awesome!" He started to shake his arms around a bit invisibly and accidently knocked Danny off causing him to reappear.

"That's just awesome! Can I be invisible next?" Beast Boy begged.

"Sorry Beast Boy, but we need to get back alright? We can't expect Nightwing to wait all night." Miss Martian said as she gestured to the ship.

Though a bit disappointed he agreed. "Noted." He then hoped up the ramp into the ship.

* * *

><p>Mount Justice – Jan 9<p>

Upon their return, the team, Danny included, made their way to the computer room to be debriefed. Batman and another man stood beside Nightwing as the teenagers lined up in front of him. "nice to know you made it back in one piece." Nightwing said with a smile.

Miss Martian gave a nod while Beast Boy gave a grin. "Did you think we weren't?"

"I was worried after that agent got the drop on us." Robin admitted as he turned to Blue Beetle.

"Me too hermano, but things worked out."

"In no small part to you I hear." Nightwing stated as he faced Danny. "Welcome to the team." He said with a hand outstretched.

Danny though a bit shy, took it happily. "Thanks."

"What did you find out?" Asked the dark knight as he turned to the Martian.

She wiped out the flash drive she held the data on and handed it off to the leaguer. "You were right, Lex was after something. He seemed to be using the GIW to try and get to it."

He turned and nodded to Nightwing. "As expected."

"The file is encrypted so we weren't able to figure out what it was they were after."

Nightwing took the drive. "I'll put it on queue then. I'm still knee deep in the Krolotean encryption."

"Well whatever it is he wanted, he's not getting it." Danny stated in a matter of fact tone. He then raised a brow in curiosity. "To be honest though, what would a billionaire want with ghost hunting tech anyway?" Not much was answered during the few minutes they went over it but time would eventually tell.

Nightwing then went over and pulled up a few images on the computer. "By the way Danny, I wanted to ask if you know what these were. We had a bit of a ghost problem a while back." The image he pulled up was pretty blurry but it held the form of some sort of bluish-white canine with what looked to be four yellow eyes.

Danny took a minute to look over the image before coming to a mental consensus. "It's pretty fuzzy but I'd say you've got a black dog. Of course if there were a lot of them then it's more likely to be a whole spirit pack."

Nightwing gave a nod. "Yeah there were at least a dozen of them."

"Then it's a spirit pack." He then moved towards the picture more. "So did someone steal something?"

"Yeah, those ghosts did."

Danny seemed a bit confused. "Well that's rare….. what was it?"

"An energy scanner."

Now Danny was even more confused. This didn't fit that particular ghost at all. "Okay…. Weird."

Nightwing turned to him in intrigue. "What makes you say that? Ghost's don't steal?"

Danny shook his head. "No, ghost steal… a lot, but not these ghosts. These ones are usually found protecting something, like in ruins or burial sites. They'll follow and haunt anyone who takes from their site. In some cases they have even been known to take back what was taken but somehow I doubt this is the case." He then gave a shrug. "Wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've seen a ghost do though."

The team leader gave Danny's info some thought before taking down the image. "Well that's one question answered at least, thanks." He said with appreciation.

Batman then made his way out of the room. "We need to get more answers. I'm going to go do a bit more research." He then left towards the Zeta tubs.

"So, this mean were done?" Jaime said as he stretched. "Cause I need to catch some sleep ese." Nightwing gave a nod and the tired teen turned on his heel. He stopped short and turned to Danny. "I'll be sure to bring the issues next time." And then he headed off to the tubes. Cass decided to call it a night too and followed the boy towards the tubes. Danny gave a wave as they headed off.

"So Danny right?" The halfa turned to see the large African American man addressing him. "Name's Mal, I coordinate teams. Nice to meet you."

Danny took his outstretched hand. "Same here."

"I heard you're gonna be staying here. I'm a resident too by the way."

Nightwing walked over to the two. "Yeah, that's right." The teen said as he recalled that fact. "I still can't believe something like that actually happened over night."

"You and me both." Danny stated in agreement and with a tinge of agitation. "Of course the kitchen still has 2 standing walls. I guess it was pretty lucky that I was the only one living in the area." He said jokingly. Nightwing raised a brow at the boy's lighter mood. Earlier it seemed he was tense and solemn but he seemed far more open now.

Mal gave a laugh at his comment. "I don't know if I could joke about my house being reduced to rubble."

Danny simply shrugged in response. "Yeah, I know I should be madder about that but what good will that do me? Besides, I already got a little payback for it." The halfa smirked as he remembered the expression on the agent's face as Cujo tore at his suit. "Anyway, I really appreciate you helping me out like this."

Nightwing waved it off before calling Beast Boy over. "Hey Beast Boy!" The green teen turned from the conversation he was having with his blood sister and towards the call of the leader. "Think you can help our new member get settled? He's gonna have the room across from yours."

"No problem!" He then walked over and gestured down the hall. "This way Phantom."

Danny was happy to follow the young changeling as he guided him down the halls. He glanced around the walls as he went in curiosity. "So….. top secret hero base?"

Beast Boy gave a nod. "Yeah. M'gann says it was used by the Justice League's in the beginning but then its location got revealed."

"Thus the tourist trap huh? So why are they still using this place if its compromised?" Danny added air quotes around the last word as a slight jest.

Garfield paused a moment to think about it himself. "I guess it's a hiding in plain sight kind of deal?"

"So its compromised making it unlikely to be used?"

Beast Boy nodded. "Yeah." Confirmed his guide as he stopped by a door. "Here you go." He opened a door to reveal the relatively empty room. It contain a bed, table, chair and closet. "Its got all the basics."

Danny took a quick look around and gave a nod. "Its better than what I was working with." He then turned to Beast Boy who had a very expectant expression. "Uh….. hmm?"

Garfield realized he was being a bit obvious and blushed a bit. "You think you could do that invisibility thing? Just once, please!" He pleaded as he clasped his hands together.

Danny raised a brow and a small smile formed on his lips. "Sure, no problem."

He simply reached out and held one finger to the boy's shoulder before he flickered out of the visible spectrum. "Whoa!" Danny could only imagine what the changeling was doing considering all he had to go on was what he felt through contact. It seemed to him he was jumping around while being smart to keep close to Danny. "This is so cool! You must do this all the time."

Danny retracted his hand. "Well, not really. I guess I just got used to it. I mean, being able to turn into any animal; that must get old too right?"

Beast Boy shrugged. "Not really. I love animals, and especially seeing new ones." He then turned to leave the room. "Well, thanks Phantom, that was cool. Let me know if you need something. I'm right across the hall."

"Sure, and Beast Boy?" Garfield paused and turned back to the halfa expectantly. "Call me Danny if you want."

Beast Boy gave a smile. "Sure and you can call me Gar."

* * *

><p>Jan 25 – Mt. Justice<p>

The next few weeks were relatively quiet at the base. Nightwing spent most of the time going over the encrypted data while Batman would come and assist on occasion, though he was busy with the other leaguers planning the trip to Rimbor. He was in the main computer room when Jaime entered looking as if he was looking for someone. "Hey Nightwing…. You seen Danny around?"

The young man answered without turning back as he kept his attention on the data. "He left a few hours ago for Amity Park."

Blu let out a sigh. "Again? How do I keep missing him?" He then shoved his hands into the pocket of his hoodie and walked out. He found himself inside the main living area, but it was empty so he figured he would go ahead and leave. He grabbed for a bag placed on the counter and headed for the tubes.

"Guess you missed him again huh?" Beast Boy commented as he entered the room.

Jaime shrugged. "Yeah…. I haven't even talked to him since he first got here."

Beast Boy gave a nod. "I haven't talked to him much either. I see him every once in a while but he's always in a hurry to start his patrol in Amity Park." Both of them let out sighs as they lamented the facts. They were pretty excited about having a new member and getting to know them but that gets pretty hard when their never around.

"Anyway, we don't have any missions now so, I guess I'll just go home."

Just as he turned towards the Zeta tubes they started up with a whine. "Danny Phantom B06" The halfa appeared seconds later with a look of severe frustration on his face. He seemed to be carrying a long cylindrical container as headed towards the main computer room. Jaime was more than a little surprised he'd come back so it took him a minute to register his chance. "Het Danny!"

The ghost boy turned at the call of his name. "Hey Jaime… What's up?"

He held up the bag in his hand. "I finally caught you, that's what's up. I've been trying for weeks ese."

Danny rubbed the back of his neck as he gave a short apology. "Sorry…. I've just been pretty busy. I never really had a lot of free time before….." he paused seeing the bag and the expectant expression on the boy's face. "Um…. Can we talk a bit later? I need to speak with Nightwing real quick okay?"

A frown grew quickly on the teens face but he nodded in understanding. "Sure…. No problem ese." Danny then quickly continued off towards the computer room while Jaime joined Beast Boy on the couch.

Beast Boy looked at the bag in curiosity. "What's in there?"

Jaime placed the bag on the table and pulled out what appeared to be a comic book. "These are the entire first release of "The Phantom of Amity Park." He held it up to show him. "It's a comic book series about Danny."

Gar's eyes widened. "No way! Really?"

He took the comic from Jaime's hands immediately causing the boy a bit of distress with the care of his comics. "Hey, be careful ese. These are first editions!"

Gar gave a sheepish grin and apologized. "Sorry, this is just too cool." He flipped it open to see a large meat monster attacking a high school.

"That's issue 1 and it's called Mystery Meat." He watched as the green teen flipped through it.

"Danny know about these?"

Jaime gave a shrug. "He didn't seem to when I mentioned them so I was gonna show him. I want to know how much of the comics are true."

"Like what?" Beast Boy asked as he flipped back to the beginning.

"Like how he's the ghost of Bill Invisio from the 70's, or the fact that he started being a hero because he saw the giant meat monster in issue 1 was going to destroy the school if he didn't do anything." He then paused for a second as he lifted another issue from the bag.

His hand started to shake a bit which caused Beast Boy a bit of worry. "You okay?"

"No way….."

BB raised a brow. "So you're not okay?"

"No hermano…. Check this out!"

* * *

><p>"So they did put it up after all?" Nightwing inquired as he continued at the keyboard.<p>

"Yeah." Danny responded dryly. "You were right. Whatever Lex wants, he obviously doesn't want me around to stop him."

The team leader finally turned away from the computer while pinching the bridge of his nose. When he looked up he noticed the large cylinder strapped to the halfa's back. "What's that?"

Danny glanced back at it. "This….. It's blue prints." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I figured since I was, for all intents and purposes, going to be locked out of the city, I should grab them before I left."

"Blueprints for what?" Danny remained silent a moment thinking over whether he should tell him or not. Nightwing saw the hesitance on his face and couldn't help thinking back to just a few days after Phantom joined the team.

_"Daniel James Fenton. Age 16. Your legal guardian was your sister, Jasmine Fenton as of March of last year. You were emancipated August of that year. Current residence is within the city of Amity Park." _

_Danny stared at Batman with wide eyes. "How did you figure all that out?" The bat simply raised a brow at the boy who quickly realized how stupide he sounded. "Right… Batman… stupide question. Anyway, so did you call me in here just for that?" He seemed a bit frustrated about his not so secret identity but it is Batman he was dealing with. _

_"No." Batman responded. "I told you all that so you wouldn't have any reservations about anything I ask you. Luthor was after an invention created by your parents. That being said, you are our best bet to figuring that out aside from what Miss Martian was able to get off the GIW computers." _

_Danny scratched his head. "Even if you say that, I don't have any clue as to what he would want with any of them. My parents were ghost hunters. They built ghost weapons. What could business man like Luthor possibly do with stuff like that?" _

_Nightwing crossed his arms. "That's what we need to figure out. He's going through an awful lot of trouble in order to get whatever it is he wants so it must be important." _

_Batman gave a nod. "That precisely why I believe he was moving the GIW for the sole purpose of getting rid of you." _

_Danny raised a brow at that. "Wait… where did that come from?"_

_ "Think about it. He's after an invention owned under Fenton Works. Normally a patent will hold for an allotted time, but if the patent holder dies with no one to take it afterwards, that's when it can be taken advantage of. Neither you or your sister was old enough to inherit the titles and so they were left to the court where he could easily take them without any retaliation." _

_Danny seemed a bit confused by the whole thing. "That explains why the GIW were able to get their hands on so much of the tech… but if he was able to take them through the court, why keep going?" _

_"Simple." Batman stated. "He didn't find what he was looking for."_

Danny let out a sigh as he pulled it off his back. "I was thinking about before…. When Batman said he couldn't find what he was looking for. This is the only invention my parents built that was never put in any sort of record. My parents were a bit paranoid when it came to this one in particular." Nightwing didn't seem all that surprised, he and Batman both felt Danny hadn't been completely forth coming with what he knew. He rubbed the back of his neck a bit as he continued. "I didn't say anything before mostly because I still have no idea why Lex would want it."

Nightwing crossed his arms and nodded in understanding. "But what exactly is it?"

"Blueprints for an interdimensional portal… a ghost portal."

The young vigilante's eyes widened at that. "A …. Ghost portal?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah, it's a portal to the ghostly plain or the Ghost Zone as it's called. Its one of the first big inventions they made from back in their college days. This is the only copy of the blueprints in existence and I dismantled the one back in the lab. If this is what they were after, there's no way they're getting it."

Nightwing, though he heard everything Danny said, was still a bit hung up on the concept of the Ghost Zone. "Yeah, okay but a Ghost Zone?"

"It's just as it sounds, a zone full of ghosts. It's a dimension that runs not just parallel to this one but it even connects at times. I was told it was like flipside of our world."

Nightwing shook his head in a bit of frustration. "I've got way too much on my plate to be trying to wrap my head around that." He then let out a sigh. "Is this the only one for sure?"

Danny gave a nod. "Yeah, all the other ones were placed under patents which means Lex most likely already has them." Danny then pulled the container back onto his back. "Anyway, I thought I'd at least tell you about it for all the help you've given me."

As Danny made his way out of the room Nightwing stopped him for a brief moment. "I appreciate you trusting me with this alright?" Danny knew by this point that Dick was a very genuine person which is why decided to tell him in the first place. "Now, I know it'll probably be frustrating for you being locked out of Amity Park, so you should take the next few days and try adjusting alright?"

Danny gave a shrug. "Sure….." He then rubbed the back of his head. "Now that I think about it though. If you really wanted to stop any kind of ghost activity in the city, placing a large ghost shield over it would certainly do the trick. The thing that annoys me about it is the fact that it pretty much sucks the power grid dry. Its ridiculous how they can't put together a better system than that, I mean my house wasn't even connected to the power grid. You'd think by stealing all its tech they'd be able to do the same." He then let out a sigh as he turned towards the door again. "Anyway, I'm going to go put this away. Let me know if you need something." And with that he left Nightwing to his decrypting. As he turned back to his work he couldn't help being a bit jealous at how well adjusted the teen was. He was able to deal with so much in the past year and still kept going.

* * *

><p>As Danny headed off to his room he immediately noticed both Beast Boy and Jaime sitting on the couch with a pile of what seemed to magazines from afar. "No hermano…. Check this out!" He watched as Beast Boy looked over Jaime's shoulder in interest and couldn't help his own curiosity. "Do you see this guy here?"<p>

As Danny approached he realized it wasn't a magazine but a comic book he was looking at and Jaime seemed to be trying to show a specific character. "What's up?"

Both of them instantly turned to see Danny still holding the long container from before. "Oh hey…. You done talking to Nightwing?"

Danny gave a nod as he looked over the comics some more. "Are these those…."

"Yeah hermano, I've been trying to show then to you for a while now."

Danny didn't seem all that pleased with what he saw of the comics. "So I really have my own comic book series huh?"

"Here's the first issue." Gar said as he held it up to him. "Were you really called by in a séance done in the basement of a high school?"

Danny took the comic as he furrowed his brow. "What are you talking about?" When he flipped open the first page, he instantly found himself regretting it as it depicted a gaggle of girls sitting in the unusually large basement storage of the school. "What is this crap?"

"I thought so." Jaime declared. "I just noticed it a minute ago ese. You looked like this guy when you had that transformation." He held up another comic with a page opened to a depiction of a school hallway under attack by some green goo monster. "The kid on the right."

Danny was more than a bit surprised to see himself as Fenton in the comic book, and couldn't help wondering just who the writer was to have so much detail. "Who writes these things?" He turned it over to see the author. "B. Hartmen huh? I might just have to go and have a talk with this guy." He let out a sigh. "First of all, I'm nobody's ghost and second, I wasn't brought out by some weird ritual done by obsessed girls."

Jaime held up the book again. "So then…. Are you him?"

Danny let out another sigh and took a good look at both boys. "Alright I'll tell you guys, but don't go telling everyone else okay? It's not much of a secret identity if everyone knows about it."

Beast Boy a salute. "No problem."

"Yeah ese, su secreto."

Danny then gave a nod before taking a quick look behind himself. "Alright, yes that's me in the book. I can morph between how I look here and how I look now." He then allowed the ring to develop and envelop him to reveal Fenton instead of Phantom. "See?"

"Sweet!" Beast Boy exclaimed as he sat up on the couch.

Danny was quick to morph back and reclaim his ghostly persona. "Anyway, I really hope you don't believe all the stuff you read in those comics."

Jaime gave the comics a questioning glance. "So your real name isn't Bill Invisio?"

Danny paused for a moment allowing it to sink in before he face palmed loud enough for it to echo. "Still the worst name ever….." He then lowered his hand to reveal a dry expression. "No…. please for the love of god, never mention that name again. My name is really Danny, please call me Danny."

"Noted." Beast Boy then continued to flip through the pages. "So what about these ghosts?" He flipped it open to reveal a shadow like ghost with a fanged smile wrestling with Phantom.

Danny raised a brow at that. "Johnny 13's shadow?"

Jaime looked over to the page. "So he's real?"

Danny gave a nod as he looked over the spread of the covers displayed on the table. He could see several familiar faces such as Skulker, Walker, Spectra ect… "Actually…. All of those are real ghosts." He said as he pointed to the stack. "How many of these do you have?"

The teen took a moment to think about it. "Well, I have so many of them. I keep them in boxes so they don't get thrown out, but I was able to dig out the first 10." The three of them spent the next couple of hours looking through the comics before Jaime checked the time. "Whoa, I got to go ese."

He turned to see the look of frustration on Danny's face as he flipped through Issue 5. "I can't believe this." He heard him grumble under his breath.

"What?" Beast Boy inquired as he looked over the halfa's shoulder.

Danny held it up and pointed in agitation. "How the heck did they know how many times I got shoved in my locker that day?"

Jaime and Gar traded glances before Jaime remembered the time again. "Sorry ese, but I gotta go. We're having guest at my house tonight."

Danny was brushing his fingers through his hair as he handed the book over. "Yeah okay…." He then stood up. "Thanks for letting me see them."

Jaime piled them all neatly back into the back before turning towards the Zeta tubes. "I'll bring more if I can find them."

"Sure." Danny responded as he headed for his room holding the long cylinder from before. He gave a lazy wave as he continued down. "Later."

Beast took a few passing glances between the two of them before waving goodbye to Jaime. "See ya, can't wait to read more." He then scampered off behind Danny and arrived at his door just after him. He peeked through the cracked doorway to see Danny stashing the long object in his closet. "So… what are you gonna do now?" He asked as he poked his head through.

Danny gave a yawn. "Now I'm going to take a nap. I haven't had a decent night's sleep for a couple of days."

A frown found its way to Gar's face as he responded. "Oh…."

Danny turned to him. "Something wrong Gar?"

That got the boy's attention. He had told him to call him by his name but this was the first time he actually had. After that first day he had really hoped they could be friends and hangout but Danny was just never around. "Uh… nothing. Have a good nap." Still seeming a bit disappointed the changeling wandered back over to his own room and was greeted by a small green dog whom he had become quite friendly with. "Oh hey Cujo!"

* * *

><p>The rest day, Danny spent mostly cooped up in his room messing with a few of the random parts he had brought from the lab. It was probably his favorite way of taking his mind off of things and it seemed to work pretty well in between his patrols through Amity Park. He was using his ghost ray to weld two pieces together when he accidentally fried a piece of a circuit board. "Crap….." He pulled the safety googles up over his forehead and took a better look at his blunder. "I guess it's back to square one with this one."<p>

After stretching a bit he looked to the clock on the table and it read 11:45. "Guess I've been at this for….. too long considering I don't remember when I started." He stretched a bit again before pulling the goggles off his head and floating up out of the chair. "Maybe I'll go for a quick flight before going to bed." He gave a slight pause. "At a relatively decent hour for once." He dashed up and through the roof to be greeted by the calm night air.

It was vastly different to the tense atmosphere he felt in Amity Park. He missed it but at the same time he enjoyed the lax feeling of flying around without the fear of being shot at. It's been way too long since he could just go for a nice nighttime flight. He'd been at it for almost half an hour when he happened by the coast by Mt. Justice. The crowed on the shore wasn't a surprise. Nightwing had told him that a few of the leaguers needed to go off world due to some kind of incident.

He watched invisibly as each protégé said their goodbye's to the mentors they trained under. He made sure to stay far away from Super boy this time around. They still didn't get along too well. He couldn't help feeling just a bit jealous at the sight and wondering how different things could have been if he'd had a mentor like Nightwing and several of the others. He gave a sigh as he rubbed his forehead invisibly. He knew there wasn't much of a point to 'what ifs' and snapped out of his thoughts just in time to see Green Lantern generate a space shuttle from his ring. He had a slight nerd moment as he tried to ascertain the model but as soon as it left he decided to make his way back inside. I have a really bad feeling about this." He mumbled as he phased through the stony surface of his secret home.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay and cut! Hope ya'll liked the chapter, I worked hard typing it and making it long. I now have a few explanations on how this will be going if you are curious.<strong>

**First of all, I gave him the designation B06 because it was convenient. Red Arrow wasn't using it anymore and I also didn't want to get any of the later designations mixed up. (Like Impulse or Arsenal) **

**Second is the comic series. I've been wanting to put his comic series in ever since I re-watched Reality Trip cause I thought it was a fun idea. This is going to be a big factor for the friendship between Blu Beetle and Danny. To be frank, just imagine the episodes without the audience knowing that Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom. Fenton is more or less a background character much like any reference to Sam, Tucker, Dash ect... I'll put it in later too but its not a big thing.**

**Third is Amity Park. I planned from the begging to exile him from the city but the bigger reason behind it won't be revealed till later. Of course he could enter as a human but what good could he do like that if he can't use his powers? Anyway, just don't think too much into it.**

**Anyway, thx for reading and I hope you'll leave a review with thoughts, feelings, questions or all of the above.=^-^=**


	5. Chapter 5 - Resources

**Okay I'm going to start more into the show now with this chapter with most of the events taking place during the episode "Salvage" Also note, I omitted the scenes with Red Arrow because they would remain the same regardless. I'll put any other notes at the bottom so please enjoy.=^-^=**

**Ch. 5 - Resources**

* * *

><p>Jan 30 – Mt. Justice<p>

Danny decided to spend this morning outside his room, which he tended to stay cooped up in for far too long. He was sitting on the couch reading a book about unusual astral phenomenon when he heard one of the Zeta Tubes start up. "Miss Martian B05; Lagoon Boy B18" Danny hadn't seen much of the Atlantean since their mission in Amity Park and he just didn't feel comfortable talking to Megan. He couldn't put his finger on it but she just unnerved him. The couple was being as lovable as ever as Miss Martian made her way over to the kitchen area and La'gann sat at the bar. "Just stay put and I'll start on those dumplings you like so much." She then gave him a quick peck on the check before going to the fridge.

Danny remained quiet on the couch, not wanting to interrupt them; he didn't have much of a reason too anyway. Unfortunately for him Lagoon boy noticed him on the couch and decided to wander over. "Hey Phantom!" He leaned over the couch. "Haven't seen much of you around."

"I guess not." Was all he had to say.

La'gann raised a brow. "So what're you reading?"

Danny made no real attempt to look his way as he answered. "It's about the repercussions of collapsing stars."

The Atlantean furrowed his brow at the boy's unresponsive attitude and jumped over the couch. "Well chum, why don't we have a match? I haven't seen much of your skills since we fought those government guys."

Danny turned the page and shook his head. "No thanks, I appreciate the offer though." La'gann then crossed his arms in slight frustration. Getting Danny to talk to him was already seeming rather hard and a sparring match certainly didn't seem to work.

"Morning Danny!" Beast Boy said as he waved and headed towards the halfa.

Danny finally put down the book and turned towards Gar. "What's up Beast Boy?"

He sat down on the other side of Danny. "I'm surprised you're not back in your room. You've kinda been a shut in."

Danny rubbed the back of his neck as he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's why I'm out here today."

Lagoon Boy watched the two of them in slight confusion. Why was Phantom so easy for Beast Boy to talk too? "Oh hey La'gann."

"Hey." The Atlantean responded.

"Anyway Danny, I think I finally got Cujo to hide."

Danny raised a brow. "Gezz, I've been trying to teach him to disappear on command but I guess that's a close second. Let's see." He then placed his fingers in his mouth and proceeded to whistle. No sooner had he lowered his hand did Cujo come barreling down the hall at the call of his master. He looked like a streak of green as he dashed onto the couch and sat in the halfa's lap. "Good boy Cujo." He praised as he scratched the ghost hound's ear.

"Okay watch." Beast Boy snapped his fingers to get the dog's attention before placing both hands over his head. "Cujo, hide." The green dog seemed confused for a moment before dashing off and crawling behind the TV. "See?" Garfield declared proudly.

Danny gave a light clap. "Bravo Gar, and it only took a couple of days."

"What kind of dog is this?" La'gann wondered as he made his presence re-known.

"He's a ghost dog. From what I could gather, he used to be a guard dog." Danny then whistled back for Cujo who happily complied. "He's a bit over protective at times though."

Gar gave a laugh at that. "You mean when he and Wolf were going at it right? That was cool." Danny scratched at the side of his face. "Somehow…. I really don't think Super Boy would agree."

Beast Boy leaned over to pat Cujo's head. "Especially after you threw him against the wall."

"You threw Super Boy? Now I really want to have a match with you." La'gann pressured.

Beast Boy was all over the idea in seconds. "Yeah! Come on Danny."

Danny sighed and shook his head. "I don't like to take up the habit of getting into random fights."

Lagoon Boy corrected him quickly. "Sparing match chum. Hand to hand only."

Beast Boy then gave him a pleading expression. "Please Danny?" He had his hands clasped together as he begged.

Danny was a bit beside himself as he scratched his hairline. "Fine…. I guess it couldn't hurt."

* * *

><p>The trio made their way to the combat room where the sparing pad lay at the center. Danny and La'gann took opposing sides while Beast Boy stood at the side. "Ready?" Gar asked as he looked at either combatant. Danny didn't seem to be too fired up but Lagoon Boy was more than ready for a fight. "Begin!"<p>

Lagoon Boy moved first with a right punch as he rushed Danny. The halfa didn't make any move to dodge but instead caught the punch and elbowed the Atlantian in the gut. Only stunned for a moment, Lagoon Boy then tried a kick which did surprise Danny a bit. He shuffled back in recoil and La'gann took more ground. He tried a low left jab this time Danny quickly parried by guarding with his elbow.

The halfa then took the offensive with a rush of his own. The Atlantian was able to read the attack and turned it around on him, now holding the teen in a head lock with his arm at his back. "Looks like I've got you this time Chum." He pushed Danny to the ground and now had a hold on him.

The message floated up indicating Danny's failure but the grin he wore wouldn't show it. "You really think so?" Without warning La'gann had two legs wrapped around his head successfully pulling him up and releasing Danny's neck from its hold. Lagoon Boy grabbed at the boots holding him before finding himself flipped face first into the floor. As he pushed himself up, a new message showing his loss appeared and a pair of white boots stood before him. Danny crouched down and held out a hand. "You shouldn't assume you've won just because you have your opponent down."

Still quite confused at what had happened he took Danny's hand. "W-what did you do?"

Gar ran up. "You should have seen it! You had him pinned down, but then Danny's waist broke in half! It was like something Plastic man would do! He grabbed you by the neck and just flipped you."

La'gann raised a brow. "He did what?"

"I did this." Danny stated as his upper half suddenly extended above his lower. A lite smoke could be seen attaching the two halves. "Even if the fight is restricted to hand-to-hand, I'm not nearly as limited as most people think." He then joined his two halves and walked over to a panel where he'd set down his book. "Thanks for the match." He said nothing more as he thumbed for his page and headed back to the couch he had sat on before.

As soon as he was out of sight, La'gann cursed himself at his loss. "Neptune's beard!"

"What's up? I know it was weird, but you're not usually a sore loser."

He crossed his arms and responded. "Well, I am a bit mad about the loss, but I'm mostly mad that I couldn't really talk to him." He then had a look as if he had just remembered something. "How is it you can talk to him so easily?"

Gar gave a shrug. "I don't know… I just do? I mean, I know he's not the most social guy, but if you can find a common topic, I'm sure he'd open up more."

* * *

><p>Feb 13 – Mt. Justice<p>

A few members of the team and league watch as Dr. Strange initiates the activation of the Zeta Shield. Danny stood by Beast Boy who was busy doing schoolwork as he watched the holographic display. "Absolutely historic!" Lagoon Boy exclaimed as he held one hand over Ma'gann's shoulder. He then turned to Beast Boy and his teacher. "Hey Professor Car, you should have your cave school pupil write a term paper about this."

Gar immediately gave him a gesture to cut it out while Danny shook his head as he stifled a laugh. "Glad I don't have any more of those…."

"With the Zeta shield in place, no alien can teleport from off world. Even your Strange friend won't be able to teleport to and from Ran without prior approval." He finished as he turned to Miss Martian.

"Yeah but that's not the only way to get to Earth right?" Danny questioned as he turned to them.

Super Boy then strolled passed with an agitated expression. "Shields great, but it won't stop a space ship or a Boom Tube." He stopped and crossed his arms next to Jaime.

"What's a Boom Tube?" He questioned in a low voice. Danny took a spot beside him as his face twisted in confusion. "Not compatible with what?! I swear I don't understand half the things you say!" He said in frustration as he crossed his arms.

Danny gave him a curious look before looking over to Mal. "Huh?"

"Feelings mutual…."

"You okay Jaime?"

He turned to the halfa with a nervous air. "Oh… uh.. fine. I'm cool ese."

"You sure? That was kinda….. random?"

He reached one hand behind his head and gave him a reassuring expression. "Yeah its cool."

"Where's Nightwing?" Super boy asked Mal in agitation.

"He's takin the night off. Personal business."

The Kryptonian responded with a sigh. "Perfect."

He then took a look around the room and his eyes fell on La'gann and Me'gann who were busy acting like a couple. "So, back to movie night Angel Fish?"He instantly turned away from that and took another scope of the room.

"So you doing anything later?" Jaime asked Danny in attempt to turn the conversation away from his embarrassing outburst.

"No, not really. I've hit a snag in my latest project and-"

Without any warning at all, Super Boy grabbed Jaime by the shirt. "You're it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa Con. Where are you going?"

"I'm taking the night off; personal business."

Danny rolled his eyes. "What's up with him?"

Mal gave a shrug. "Conner can be like that sometimes. Kinda wonder what's got him so wound up right now." Mal walked back and Danny watched the two as they headed towards the hanger. He took a passing glance at the others in the room before silently floating off after them.

* * *

><p>Danny followed silently as the Super Cycle tailed what looked to be an industrial truck. Blue Beetle sat slouched in the back quietly shushing someone whom nobody knew. "Alright, I'll ask!"<p>

"Ask what?" Super Boy questioned without turning around.

Blu let out a sigh before asking. "Any piece of this mission you feel like letting me in on? Look, I know you only picked me cause Gar was studying, La'gann and Me'gann were…. Whatevering, and you avoid Danny like the plague, but I'm here ese, and I wanna help."

Super Boy gave a pause before loosening up. "Yeah okay." He then started on his explanation of how intergang smuggled weapons onto Earth through Boom Tubes, and that it may be related to the bomb from Melina Island. For whatever reason, the Kroloteans didn't seem to know anything about it. "I've been keeping tabs on Whisper A'deire, one of Intergang's top lieutenants. Tonight, her boss, Bruno 'Ugly' Manheim crawled out of hiding to meet up with her. They're both in that truck, and it looks like they're headed for…. The Hall of Justice…"

"Sounds like they're up to something." A voice, seemingly out of nowhere, stated. Jaime couldn't help but jump a bit as Danny appeared just beside him.

Super Boy turned and gave him a glare before turning forward to face their target. "What are you doing here?"

Danny sat back and crossed his arms. "Well Mal thought you seemed riled up earlier so I figured I'd follow and see if it was anything big. There's also the fact that you dragged Jaime away while I was still talking to him." The Kryptonian gave an agitated grunt in response but said nothing as he continued forward. Danny let out a sigh. "Okay look, I know you don't like me. I get it, but I'm not exactly the plague alright? We didn't meet on the best of terms but I'm not the enemy here."

Conner took a moment before responding in a slightly less aggressive way. "Fine, but follow my lead." After the truck stopped the Cycle floated quietly as Conner watched with his inferred vision. He then turned to Blu. "Can you scan that case?"

Though it was bit sudden he complied. "Oh.. yeah, sure." He held out his arm which morphed into a sort of scanner like device. Danny watched in intrigue as Blu became extremely quiet for a moment. He then let out a sigh and held the device up. "Not compatible again? What does that even mean!?"

Conner then turned back to him. "What do you mean? Who are you even talking too?"

Danny gave a nod. "Yeah, you've got me worrying about you man, and no offense, but it makes you sound crazy."

Jaime let out a deep sigh before pointing behind himself. "It's the Scarab, the thing stuck to my spine; gives me the armor, the powers. It's an artificial intelligence created by Ted Kord, you know, the previous Blue Beetle."

Conner gave a nod. "Yeah, I knew him."

"So I hear, guess he was a super genius or something. Captain Atom figures the Scarub was Kord's ultimate invention, but the Light killed him before he had a chance to use it. The Scarub advises me….. think Jiminy Cricket, with a really bad attitude. It can't scan the brief case for some reason."

Danny gave a shrug and leaned forward. "Nothing's perfect. Whatever's inside is probably nothing good anyway, especially if they try so hard to keep out prying eyes."

"Can it scan the hall?" Super Boy questioned. "Ugly may be about to launch an attack on whoever's inside, and it's shielded from my inferred vision."

"Scan complete. Hall's deserted." Blu stated as he deactivated the scanner.

"Then what could they want in there? It doesn't actually have anything important in it besides those trophies for the league right?"

"That's right." Conner responded to the halfa. "So what….." He glared down as he watched Ugly open the case.

"What is that?" The Super Cycle answered Blu's question with a roar of its engine.

"I don't know, but judging how Sphere's reacting, I bet its Apocolyptan."

"Meaning?" Both Danny and Blu asked at the same time.

"Bad news, now come on." As the cycle moved in, Ugly pulled out the machine and a sort of energy wave started to pulse out.

Jaime immediately grabbed his head in pain and Danny couldn't shake the immense feeling of dread it gave him. It was like nothing he'd ever felt. He turned to Blue Beetle. "You okay?!"

Danny followed Super Boy and Wolf in jumping out of the cycle. "Game's over Ugly. Time to hand over the device."

"Yeah and with a name like Ugly, I can only imagine how much more ugly it could get when you refuse." Danny quipped as he floated behind his Kryptonian ally.

Ugly gave a chuckle as he responded. "Funny, but you're only half right, the game is over."

Wolf growled as the wall of the Hall started to crumble and crack. "….. not good." Danny watched, with his smirk falling, as a giant mix matched monster broke through the wall.

As soon as it was through, Ugly pressed a few buttons on the device and gave his order. "Attack." The creature wasted no time as it swung down its stony arm at Conner who dodged with a jump. He latched onto it and jumped up, followed by a crushing punch to what could be assumed as the head. Danny flew around behind it and tried to knock it over with a blast of his Ghost Ray before it flailed its arm back at him.

Wolf was next to charge as it jumped and took a large chuck of the wood on its leg. Super Boy took his chance and boxed the same leg hoping to get it down. The three of them continued to get it with hit after hit, but it was apparently healing itself as it went, making things very difficult. "What is that thing!" Blu yelled from the cycle.

"It doesn't look friendly does it? Come on Blu!"

After he seemed to grumble to himself, he flew up and raised his weapon. "Okay, that I get."

"Blu NO!" Super Boy shouted.

Danny took the warning and became intangible as Blu shot off a sonic blast at the giant. It didn't take long for the wave to reflect back and knock all but the halfa back. He was able to catch Blu as he dropped down like a rock. "I gotcha." He then turned to Super Boy. "You oaky?"

"Yeah…." He grumbled from the ground before going silent.

Before he could even react, the apalaxian golem stomped down on the super teens. "They're down, can we kill them?"

Ugly shook his head. "Eh, trying to kill a Kryptonian can be… time consuming. The league will be here any second. Let's just get gone." He adjusted a few things on the panel and the golem let out a contorted roar before forming two large wings on its back. It stepped off of Danny and Blu Beetle to scoop up both Ugly and his lieutenant, then flew off.

* * *

><p>Danny was now rubbing at one of his ears as he sat beside Blu in the cycle. "Even when I'm intangible…. Geez, I'm sure glad I didn't do what I was planning to do."<p>

Jaime let out a sigh and then turned to Super Boy. "How are your ears?"

"FINE!" Realizing he was a bit loud he adjusted his tone. "Fine, but what were you thinking using sonics against an Apalaxian?"

"Is that what that thing was? Well… it explains the whole sound thing then." The halfa then let out a sigh and sat back.

Blu looked at Danny with a raised brow and then turned back to Conner. "Dude, I never even heard of an Apil…laxative before tonight."

Danny sat up and gave him a confused look. "They were the Justice League's first trophies man, why don't you know this?"

Conner let out a sigh. "At least one of you freshmen did the homework. Haven't you read the case file on the League's first mission? Haven't you taken the guided tour of the Hall?"

Blu responded in a questioning manner. "Those are rhetorical questions right?"

Danny then raised his hand. "For the record, I didn't do either."

With a sigh, Super Boy went on to explain the Apalaxians and their importance in the League's formation. By the time he was done Blu was sporting an expression of surprise. "Oh… and so they stuffed them in the hall as trophies?"

Danny gave a nod. "Yeah, but what was up with that one? It doesn't really look like any of them, but….. a fusion of all four somehow."

Conner brought his hand to his chin. "Ugly's device must have reanimated the husks, and combined them somehow, into a creature he could control."

Danny furrowed his brow. "What does he want with that thing though? If he's running some kind of weapons smuggling business, isn't that just a bit too….. noticeable? I mean it probably makes a great weapon no offense…."

"Whatever he wants with it, we need to find it. Sphere's tracking the devices Apacolyptan energy readings. We're closing in."

* * *

><p>Feb. 13 – Arlington<p>

"With this thing as my enforcer, I can expand Intergang's territory exponentially." Ugly said with a grin. He was interrupted by a shrill whistle and looked to the sky. "Wow, five syllables? I didn't think you knew any words with more than two." Super Boy quipped from a top Sphere. Danny floated just above him just trying to keep a straight face.

"Hilarious, but we'll see who's laughing when I –"

"New Genesphere, jam all Apocalyptan frequencies in the area." With a glow the Super Cycle reacted and the machine in Ugly's hand soon sparked up and fried.

"Neat trick." Danny commented as he pointed at the fried device.

The golem then moved and crushed it with one swift step causing Ugly to jerk back. "Uh-oh….." With a swing of its arm it knocked the two of them back and then turned its gaze on the young heroes. With both arms, it slammed down Sphere and dropped down into the snow causing a shockwave.

Super Boy braced against a tree as Wulf made a charge and bit at one of the wooden roots of the monster's arm. As Super Boy made a jump he was knocked back while Wolf was thrown off. Danny was once again trying his ghost ray's effectiveness against the beast, but it seemed to do absolutely no damage this time. He dodged just in time for Blu to dive at it with his armor in the form of a sort of battering ram, but he bounced right off the enraged creature. "Does nothing hurt this thing?" Danny whined as he dodged the golem's flailing arms.

On the ground Blu was picking himself back up off the ground while arguing with the Scarab. "Porfavor! I'm trying to-" He was interrupted when the golem stomped him into the ground.

"Really bad time for an internal argument Blu!" Danny yelled as he was being shaken from the creature's head. When he was finally removed, he fell hard into a pile of snow and the creature turned away. As Danny sat up while rubbing his head a bit he noticed the monster and the Nuclear Reactor in its line of sight. "Uh-oh….. that can't be good…." He flew up and quickly got a good view of the battle field. Super Boy and Blue Beetle seemed out along with the two Intergangers. He took a few glances back and forth. "I'm going to go out on a limb here guys and say you're fine. I really need to go after that thing!" With only a second's hesitance more he dashed after it as fast as his ghostly tail could take him.

As he caught up to the creature just in front of the plant, he saw the guards seemed to be engaged in a fruitless firing match with it. "Out of the way!" He shouted as he slammed it with all his built up momentum. It fell to the ground and thankfully the people were able to stay out of its falling path due to the halfa's warning. It was quick to get up though and seemed adamant about getting to the reactors. "Oh no you don't!" Danny yelled as he flew down at its legs.

He held out his glowing blue hands and froze the two of them together in an attempt to halt the creature's advance. It took several swipes at the ice Danny was trying so hard to build up and neither of them seemed to be getting very far. After swiping at Danny and breaking his concentration, it busted out of it's icy shackles and flew up towards the reactor. Danny flew after it in protest but was surprised when it was blasted back by fire from the New Genesphere. "Hey! About time!"

"Deploy, we can't let it reach the reactor!" Super Boy shouted as he jumped out of the Cycle followed by Wolf and Blu. He jumped and tackled the golem causing it to shuffle back and was quickly followed up by Danny, and then Blu swiped down one of it's feet causing it to finally fall back. Sphere slammed it back down when it tried to recover. It was then that Conner and Wolf dashed onto the beast and held down its arms. "Hold it down!" He then jumped to a different part of its arm. "Lock it down!"

Both Danny and Blu complied. "Got it!" "Yeah, workin on it!" Danny used his ice to try and freeze the lower half while Jaime used his Blue staples to pin down the rest.

Super Boy then turned to Sphere. "Sphere, pill bug mode. Try and take control of it!" Just as it made a jump for the head it was knocked away and the golem was breaking out of it's bonds.

Danny then rubbed his chin as he dodged its flailing arm. "You know, that's a pretty good idea." He then became intangible and phased into the creature. It flailed around wildly while pulling away at the staples still lodged in its body. It grabbed at it's head area as it shuffled around and after a few minutes Danny came flying out and hit the ground hard.

Blu watched as he slid a bit and seemed to fall unconscious. "I don't suppose we could just ask it to play nice?" "_Such a tactic would betray weakness!"_ The scarab responded with a venomous tone. "Wait… you mean it's possible?"

Danny wakes up just in time to see Blue Beetle in some sort of trance as he talks about the unnatural movement and noise of the elements. "All this life is, is pain. We sense the energy here is enough to destroy us, to end the pain."

Super Boy seemed sympathetic as he responded. "I can relate….."

"So can I…" Danny groaned out as he approached them rubbing his head. "I got a really good dose of it when I tried to overshadow it."

Super Boy then turned to the creature. "But we can help you, we will help you." Before he could say anything more another sonic pulse seemed to come out of nowhere and started blasting the creature apart.

Both Conner and Wolf seemed to be in pain from the noise while Danny tried to get a read on the source. "What the?" Blue Beetle was hit with the recoil of the sonic attack and was blasted back when the golem exploded. Super Boy caught him as he fell. As Danny shielded his eyes from the debris he scanned the area for the shadow he glimpsed before the explosion but found nothing. Super Boy, while holding Blu, took up looking too, but was equally unsuccessful. "Looks like whoever it was, hightailed it already." Danny stated as he flew down to his teammates. "How's Blu?"

"I don't know who you guys are but you took that thing down! Probably saved the whole east coast!" Danny gave the man a lamenting smile as he turned back to his fallen comrade.

He seemed to stir and opened his eyes. "It was alive…." He reached on arm up to grasp at the falling embers. "And now its gone…." He then turned his gaze at each of his friends. "Who attacked? Who killed it?"

Super Boy glared off towards the forest. "Someone Ugly."

Danny raised a hand to his chin. "I…. I don't think so." His quiet deduction didn't seem to reach the Kryptonian as he stood up with Blu and charged for the forest. As they went Danny continued to be lost in his own thoughts about the mysterious shadow. He just didn't believe it was those two from earlier….. it gave him a weird feeling.

"They should still be pinned where I left them." Blu stated as he lead the way.

"And I'm telling you they're long... gone?" Super Boy almost questioned as they reached the top of the hill to see Ugly and Whisper still pinned to the trees. Danny flew over quickly and saw the blank expressions they wore.

Blue Beetle brought up his scanner and pointed it their way. "They're alive, breathing, steady heart beats." Super Boy walked up with curiosity. "But non responsive." Blu finished as he watched Conner snap his fingers in their faces.

"Stop me if I sound crazy, but I don't think anyone's home." Danny concurred as he waved his hand before them. He then decided to try his luck again with his overshadowing ability and jumped into Ugly. Conner raised his brow at the gesture as he saw the man jump to life. "Whoa…. This guy is…."

"What's up ese?"

Danny turned his way. "I didn't meet any resistance. It's like his mind is a total blank."

* * *

><p>"As requested, Ugly and Whisper are now a living warning for anyone else straying from the path of the Light, but why blow up gruesome? Seems like a wasted resource." Sports Master asked as he walked over to the shadowy figure.<p>

They responded with a cold and calculating voice. "A resource falling into enemy hands, is a resource best disposed of."

The blonde man let out a laugh. "Partner, I like the way you think."

"Yes, and speaking of resources, it seems that other one may prove to far more useful than I initially calculated." The stranger said with a cold laugh which was mimicked by Sports Master.

* * *

><p>Feb. 13 – Mt. Justice<p>

It was almost midnight as Super Boy and his team arrive back at the base and Jaime stretched as he jumped out of the Cycle. He still seemed a bit depressed by the destruction of the Golem and Danny placed a hand on his shoulder. "There wasn't anything you could do. Whoever destroyed it, did it with one shot."

Jaime gave a sigh and nodded. "Yeah, I know but….. I just can't help feeling sad for it."

Super Boy approached with his arms crossed. "Even though I know it wasn't right, it got what it wanted. It's at rest now."

"Yeah dude." Danny concurred.

Jaime gave a weak nod as he headed out of the hanger. "Yeah alright…. Well I'm going home, see you later ese."

Danny watched him with sympathetic eyes. Being powerless to stop something is all too familiar a feeling for him in way too many ways. He gave a lite shake of his head as he turned and noticed Conner watching him. "Uh… yes?"

The Kryptonian gave a nod as he glanced away. "You uh… you did good Phantom."

Danny raised a brow. "...Thanks?"

Conner rubbed the back of his head before turning back to the halfa. "Alright, you had a point earlier. We didn't get off on the right foot, and I didn't really give you a chance." He then held out a hand to Danny.

He gave it a wary glance before taking the gesture. "Cool, I appreciate that Super Boy." He then furrowed his brow and raised a hand to his chin. "By the way, about earlier. You remember when the golem was first destroyed?" He gave a serious nod. "Even back then I didn't think those two from earlier were behind it. When we founded them pinned to the trees it only made me more sure."

Conner raised a brow at him. "What are you getting at?"

"I saw a shadow right before the golem was destroyed, only one shadow. It was hard to get any detail from the distance and it was only for a moment but I could tell it wasn't Ugly or Whisper. I caught the shine from it's eyes and it gave me this really bad feeling, though I can't quite place my finger on it; it reminds me of something."

* * *

><p><strong>CUT! Alright, so like I said, it has the scenes from "Salvage". Now you may have noticed the play by play was almost the same as the episode only I added Danny, but the story will slowly deviate as Danny has more and more of an impact on how things go. Also, this chapter was a good chance for Danny and Conner to clear the air from their hilarious miscommunication.=^-^=<strong>

**Well anyway, as always a reveiw will be most appreciated!=^-^=**


	6. Chapter 6 - Missing

**OMG a new chapter? Already? Readers I think I may have been replaced with a clone who has a better work ethic! Anyway, I've been on a roll with this one as of late. This chapter includes small portions of Beneath but consists of mostly scenes from Bloodlines. Of course theire is new content too. Enjoy.=^-^=**

**Ch. 6 - Missing**

* * *

><p>Feb. 19 – Mt. Justice<p>

"Where is it?" Danny groaned as he looked over the table and through the many random papers on his work table. He pilled some together and placed them on the corner of the desk. He pulled out one of the drawers and dumped the contents out on the top. "Damn it…." He furrowed his brow as he thought over where he'd seen it last. "I just had it yesterday….. what did I do with it?"

"What are you looking for Danny?" He turned to see Gar walking through his halfway open door.

"I'm looking for that little scanner attachment I was working on yesterday. You know, the one that looks like an L?"

"The computer chip thing? No…. don't you normally keep that stuff inside the drawers?"

Danny gave a nod. "Yeah, but I was tired last night so I just set it on the shelf here."

Beast Boy winched in response. "Oh then….. I think Cujo has it….. you know how he is with stuff out in the open."

Danny smacked his forehead in dread. "I really hope not…." He then gave an exasperated whistle to call the dog and was a bit surprised to hear the bark come from behind him. They both turned to see the pup panting along with the piece sitting just in front of him. "Aww…. Cujo!" The dog turned his head in confusion before picking the piece back up and leaning in a playful stance. Danny was careful not to make any sudden moves as he slowly approached the dog. "Alright Beast Boy, just be careful. If he runs off now, chances are we'll never find him until he wants to be found."

"Noted." The changeling responded as he made a slow approach to the dog as well. Gar was the first to dive for the dog but was easily out maneuvered.

Danny, however, was able to catch him on the rebound and had him pinned to the floor. "Alright Cujo, give!" The ghost was happy to do so once Danny started to rub his belly and he shook his leg in delight. "Good boy Cujo!" Danny was quick to pick up the piece and was a bit disgusted when he felt the slobber left on it. "Remind me to never get lazy about putting stuff away." He told Gar as he phased the slobber off and looked it over for damage. He was happy it didn't seem to be broken in anyway and headed back over to the table to pick up the papers from earlier. "Glad I didn't have to start over again." He then turned back to the green teen. "So what's up?"

Gar shrugged in response. "Nothing really. I was hoping Jaime was going to come and hang but he had to study for some test. Are you doing anything right now?"

Danny held the papers under his arm and headed out of his room with Gar right behind him. "Well, I need to give these to Nightwing, and after that I have to take Cujo out for his walk. You want to come with?"

"Sure." He responded with enthusiasm. "Sounds like a plan." He then continued to follow him until they reached the com room where Nightwing was briefing Apha squad on their mission.

"We have conformation that Biyalia's psychic enforcer is still catatonic in a Quaroki hospital…. After his last encounter with you. Biyalia's dictator, however, is another story. Her ability to control the minds of men is why Alpha is an all-female squad for this mission."

"Uh-oh." The vigilante gave a slight turn to see Danny and Gar standing right next to him, with the halfa wearing a cautious expression.

When he looked back at the screen, Batgirl wore as smirk as she questioned him. "Oh really? And would you have felt the need to justify an all-male squad for a given mission?"

Nightwing took a moment to clear his throat. "There's no right answer for that… is there?... so…. Nightwing out." Both Danny and Gar were stifling their laughter as Nightwing turned to them.

"You dug yourself into that one man."

Nightwing wore an amused smirk as he raised a brow. "Funny was it?"

"Hilarious." Danny bluntly stated. "I saw it coming from a mile away." He then calmed his laughter and held up the papers with the chip on top. "Anyway, I came in here to give you this. It should be able to find any ghost within a 10 mile range, though it requires specific energy inputs and high range components. I'm sure you can find something it can be adapted to. The first page will give you the listing."

He seemed surprised as looked over the data. "You sure finished that fast." Danny gave a nod. "It helps to know a guy who can turn an mp3 player into a holographic projector. Anyway, let me know if you need anything else." He then strolled off towards the hangar.

* * *

><p>Feb. 20 - Mt. Justice<p>

Danny was sleeping rather soundly in his own room before his phone started ringing. He tried to just let it go, but it wouldn't stop and so he eventually broke down and answered it. He saw the caller ID and answered with an aggravated tone. "I'm on the East Coast, do you have any idea what time it is here?"

He then let out a yawn as Tucker started. "_Alright dude I get it, but I can't seem to get in touch with Sam."_

Danny raised a curious brow. "You sure her parents aren't intercepting her calls again?"

"_I hope that's all it is, but I just have a really bad feeling dude. Have you even talked to her since she got out of the hospital?"_ Danny remained quiet and wore a somber expression. "_Thought so. It would explain why she hates it when I bring you up on the phone. You know you two need to work out this issue you have."_

"We don't have an issue Tuck." Danny vehemently denied.

"_Yeah, and I don't wear a red barre. Anyway, you need to at least call her. She is worried about you, I could tell even though she was yelling."_

Danny gave a subconscious nod as he answered. "I know I just…"

"_I know dude alright, but you can't hold this over your head forever. Sam is fine, and you two really need to talk!"_

Danny let out a grumble. "Alright…. I'll try her in the morning, happy?"

"_Yeah, and you better try more than once too!"_

"Alright!... can I go back to sleep now?" He whined as he yawned into the phone.

"_Alright, but don't you forget or you're on your own on your next tech project."_

"Fine, goodnight Tucker." He then hung up the phone and slammed it onto the table. "All the way across the country and he still finds a way to nag me about Sam… geez…" He then flopped down on his pillow and welcomed the sweet embrace of sleep. As he waited, however, the embrace didn't seem to come and so he sat up in the bed. "Damn it….. now I can't sleep. Thanks Tuck." He stretched a bit and the morphed into his ghostly alter ego. "Nothing says get tired like laps around the town." He spent the next 20 minutes doing just that and hopefully burning away his newfound insomnia. When he arrived back at the base he saw Nightwing debriefing Alpha squad in the main room. "Wonder what's up?" He muttered to himself as he watched from afar.

"Questions keep the investigation moving forward. You saved lives and got each other home safe. It's a successful mission in my book." He stated as he stood before the disheartened Wonder Girl. "Good work Alpha." Bat Girl then grabbed Wonder Girl and the others surrounded her with reassuring expressions. As Nightwing walked back over to the computer panel he noticed Danny watching. "What are you still doing up?"

Danny scratched the back of his head as he responded. "I wasn't but I got woken up earlier. Anyway, how'd the mission go?"

Nightwing started to enter in some data. "Over all it went well, but they brought a disturbing bit of news. Apparently the Bialyians were kidnapping kids, most of them being runaways, but not for the Kroloteans like we thought."

"Then who?" Danny questioned.

"We're not sure except that they're partnered with the Light."

Danny took a moment to think about it before he cringed at his own thoughts. "What could they want with them? All the things I can think of are…. Weird." He then tried to shake the images from his mind and head back to his room. "Good luck trying figure it out. I'm going back to sleep." Nightwing waved him off silently while still keeping his attention on the screen. Danny couldn't help wondering a bit more about it though, as he strolled back to his room. What could the Light, or their partner want with a bunch of kids?

* * *

><p>Feb. 28 – Mt. Justice<p>

"Decryption, completed. Translation, completed." The computer alerted as Nightwing continued at the controls. Robin and Beast Boy were just heading over when it made its announcement. "Is that the Krolotean intel?" Robin asked his predecessor.

Beast Boy turned to him in confusion. "What Krolotean intel?"

Nightwing responded as he kept his concentration on the interface. "The data files M'gann and J'onn recovered on Malina island before it was destroyed."

"Ah! Noted." Gar responded with one finger raised in understanding.

"Apparently, the Kroloteans were snatching humans to use as Ginny pigs. They were hoping to find something….. something inside us."

"What?"

"There's… no English word for it. The closest translation is… Meta-gene."

"What's a Meta-gene?" Robin asked as he turned his head slightly.

"Never met-a-gene I didn't like!" Beast Boy joked while jabbing Robin in the side.

"You think it might be an actual gene?" The three of them were surprised at the new voice and searched around till they found their eyes on the ceiling. Danny was looking at them from above as he stood on the roof like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Nightwing's initial surprise faded fast as he questioned the halfa. "What do you mean an actual gene?"

He jumped and floated down to land on the floor. "I mean like a living gene, you know like genetics? You did say Meta-GENE right?" Nightwing gave a contemplating nod before an alarm sounded through the base. "Unknown energy impulse detected!" The computer alerted and the heroes quickly started to look around for what had sparked the alarm. Nightwing noticed the energy ball first which started out as a small blue light, then quickly expanded out until a shape could be seen within it. "Okay…. New." Danny commented as he stood in surprise with the others.

Once the blue light started to fade the object inside became more corporeal and Nightwing readied his weapons. "Stand ready." He ordered as the other three complied. Needless to say, when the door opened and the smoke bellowed out, no one expected the oddly dressed teen to just jump out with a simple Ta-da.

Beast Boy turned to Nightwing with a raised brow. "Well, I think we found our unknown energy impulse."

"You think?" Danny quipped sarcastically as he floated with his arms crossed.

"Impulse? That's so crash! Catchy, dramatic, one-word…" He then moved over to each hero respectively as he named them. "Like Nightwing, and Robin, and Beast Boy….. except that's two words." He raised a finger to his temple. "Blue Beetle's two words." He then looked excited as he continued. "Hey! Is he here too? Nevermind." He said as he dashed off for the hall. "Impulse can find that out for himself!"

The minute he turned around to dash off he was cut off by Danny who had floated up and into his path while he was talking. "Hi." Impulse certainly looked surprised and almost jumped back, but the surprise quickly flew away as he circled him a bit. "Cool, Phantom." He turned to the other and pointed at the unamused halfa. "Phantom, also one word. This is crash!" He then turned back without awaiting a response. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be in Amity Park? Heard it was nice there. Sign my comic book?" He asked as he shoved it in his face. He then seemed to have an epiphany as he dashed around him. "Oh right, gonna look for Blue Beetle, see ya!"

Danny held the comic in his hands as he turned his head towards the remnant blur that was Impulse. "Okay….. maybe more weird than new."

"You two, take him down." Nightwing ordered as he pointed to Robin and Beast Boy. They jumped into action with Gar taking the form of a cheetah.

Danny then slowly made his way over to Nightwing. "I trust you have more of a plan?" He asked as he took a good look at the tattered comic in his hand.

"You actually have doubts? Why don't you go ahead and sign that?" He responded as he held out a pen to the confused halfa.

"Okay?" A few minutes later, Impulse came rushing through the room where Danny was quick to get his attention. "You want this back?" He taunted as he held the comic out. The effect was immediate as Impulse made a bee line for Phantom and was quickly knocked out by Nightwing while he was distracted.

He wasted no time in cuffing both his arms and legs and stood up with a stern look on his face. "Now that was crash."

"Crash for you maybe." Impulse whined from the floor. "Me? I'm totally feeling the mode."

* * *

><p>Danny, Beast Boy and Robin all stood in front of the bound Impulse as they tried to understand what he was talking about. "You're a tourist…. From the future?" Danny crossed his arms as he let out a sigh. "Okay, I'm so not touching that subject."<p>

Impulse gave an optimistic nudge. "Why so surprised? Half the meat at comic-con are from my era." Robin gave the boy a critical gaze as Danny took to looking over the comic book he still had in his position. "Oh crash! You so signed it!" Impulse pointed out as he eyed the cover. "That's a reprinting of issue no. 21 'Reign Storm', rarest reprint of the set." Danny raised a brow as he scrutinized the cover. Impulse then looked over all their expressions of disbelief and decided to try again. "Look, look, look, guys, we should all be friends! I'm really one of you. Part of the heroic legacy right? My name's Bart Allen, you know, grandson of Barry Allen, the Flash."

Beast Boy wore an amused expression. "Noted, not believed, but noted."

"What's not to believe!? I've clearly got flash's speed, his amazing good looks, frankly, I can't wait to meet him!" Bart's egger expression contorted a moment as he continued. "Uh, you know, back when he was in his prime."

Nightwing then came back into the room holding a cup of water. Danny, who had moved over to the proposed time machine followed him back over to the others. "Well Bart, coming all the way from the future. You must have worked up quite a thirst."

He held it out for him and the speedster took it happily. "Thanks." After a few gulps he stop. "Oh, ah! You're trying to get a DNA sample; you need my spit." He then promptly spit into the cup for Nightwing's convenience. "Ha! That's such a Dick Greyson thing to do."

Robin looked over to the older team member. "How did….?"

"See? I know stuff only a future boy would know. Dick Greyson, Tim Drake, Garfield Logan"

Beast Boy turned to Robin with a questioning expression. "Your name's Tim?"

Danny was quick to note he was left out of the reveal, but turned to Dick in curiosity. "And your name is Dick?" He asked as he gave Beast Boy a passing glance.

"Opps. Spoilers." Bart started with a guilty expression. "This secret identity thing is so retro, I mean, you can call me Impulse, or Bart, or Bart Allen, or Bart Impulse Allen, it's all crash."

Robin then turned his questioning gaze to their leader. "Is it possible he's telling the truth? Could he really be from the future?"

Beast Boy then looked Bart in the eye. "Then tell us something we don't know… yet."

"I wouldn't Beast boy. You'll more likely come to regret it." Danny warned.

"Sorry BB, never was the best history student, besides Phantom's right, we can't risk altering the time stream. We do that and we're all feeling the mode."

"And the mode would be… bad?"

Impulse gave a nod. "Couldn't get any worse. Always better to crash the mode."

Gar seemed rather unsure as he responded. "Uh… noted?"

"Recognized Malcom Duncan A-10" The computer announced rather suddenly.

"Oh! Sounds like a door opening somewhere. Annnnnd, that's my cue!" On that note he found his way out of the cuffs Nightwing had placed on him and dashed out before anyone could really register what had happened. "Hi Mal! Bye Mal!" He shouted as he passed the clueless man on his motorcycle.

Beast Boy then took on a look of confidence as he turned to the door. "Don't worry, the Peregrine falcon is the world's fastest bird! He won't get far!"

Danny gave the others a look of disbelief. "Is he serious?"

"Does he even stand a chance?" Robin added in.

"No." Responded Nightwing in a confident tone. "But at least we can track him."

"You planted a tracer? Won't it fall at his speed?"

"I'm a little more interested in when you had time to place one." Danny commented as he watched the screen beside Robin.

"Actually he drank it."

Robin then held the glass of water up. "Subcontainious micro-tracker in the water, nice."

"Thanks, he's making a B-line for Central City." He then picked up his phone and started dialing.

Danny gave him a look before turning to Robin. "Remind me to never get on his hit list….. ever."

"You and me both Phantom." Robin agreed with a knowing grin.

As soon as Nightwing got off the phone he started to set up the DNA analysis. "Now to see if he's really who he says he is."

Danny made a motion to get Dick's attention. "Uh actually, I think he's telling the truth."

He raised a brow without turning from the screen. "Well, I'm just looking for some solid evidence to corroborate his story."

Danny pointed over to the time machine. "I got all the evidence I needed from the time machine he came in."

The vigilante finally turned his way. "What kind of evidence are you talking about?"

Danny walked over it and both Robin and Nightwing followed suit. "If you look to the right of the door near the bottom you should see it."

Nightwing kneeled down and leaned against the dark metal side. It only took him a moment to notice something seemed to be carved into the side. "C…..W?"

They were crudely scratched out and overlaid in a familiar pattern. "Yeah, Clockwork tagged the time machine. I take that as the kid having permission to go time traveling."

Dick thought for a moment on where he'd heard the name before and turned to the halfa. "Wasn't CW brought up by Dr. Fate? So his name is Clockwork? Just who is he?"

Danny rubbed his chin a bit thinking over just how much he should say. "Well he's sort of the guardian of time and watches over the time stream. If he wants you to know any more then he'll come find you."

He remembers a very similar answer coming from Dr. Fate though Danny at least gave him some information to go on. "Well, regardless of whether he has permission or not, we still need to confirm his identity."

* * *

><p>Later that night Impulse returned to Mt. Justice with the three other speedsters as Nightwing goes over the DNA analysis. "Impulse's DNA matches up with both Iris' and you Barry. This is also giving off both Zeta and Chronotron radiation."<p>

"Which is, at least in theory, what you'd expect radiating off a time machine." Kid Flash continued for him.

"I don't understand why you all need so much proof, theoretical or otherwise. I mean this is a pretty crazy set up for some kind of villainous plot don't you think?" Danny pointed out as he floated on the other side of the machine.

Kid Flash gave him a pointed glare. "Having scientific evidence is the surest way to prove fact, and I really don't need that kind of criticism coming from a supposed ghost."

Danny furrowed his brow. "Well first of all, I'm only half ghost." He explained as he gestured to himself. He then flew over to the scientific follower with his ghostly tail out. "And second, Boo!" He teased as he leaned on one floating arm.

KF gave him an unamused expression. "I'll stick to the facts if you don't mind." He then turned back to the other speedsters.

"Geez, what do I have to do? Disembody my own head?"

"Whoa! Can you actually do that!?" Beast Boy questioned with a glow in his eyes.

Flash then placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Anyway all that means you're exactly who you say you are."

"I told you. Anyway, its been crash, but the future awaits and I gotta run!" He gave a laugh to his own joke. "Get it? Run. See what I did there? That one was for you gramps."

Flash approached Impulse as he was about to enter the machine. "Bart, thanks for coming. I look forward to meeting you again for the first time, and watching you grow up."

"That will be crash." Bart responded as he hugged his grandfather. He then parted and jumped back into the machine. "So long!"

Danny gave a chuckle as the others waited for the machine to do something. Gar then decided it was his duty to see what was so funny and so he looked up at Danny who was floating nonchalantly in the air. "Okay, what's so funny?"

"I bet you ten bucks nothing happens."

Gar looked at the, still unmoving, machine and then back to Danny. "What makes you say that?"

Danny raised two fingers. "Well one, he forgot his 'rare' comic book." He said with quotes. "And two, Clockwork doesn't just let people travel through time for the entertainment value….. usually anyway." He added the last part with a grumble. "I'm still questioning the whole Salem Massachusetts thing."

Gar scratched his head and looked back at the machine. "Maybe he's traveling to the future one second at a time?"

After about a minute more Impulse busted through the door. "It's not working!" He got out and kicked the useless machine. "The whole thing's fried!"

Flash approached. "Can you fix it?"

"I'm a tourist, not a chronal expert." He responded as if it was obvious. "Look at me! I'm trapped in the stupide past!" He made dramatic gestures with his arms as he continued with a sigh. "I'm so moded."

* * *

><p>Mar. 1 – Mt. Justice<p>

Danny seemed to be hard at work on another project in his room. The flash of his ghost ray, which he was using as a wielding gun, flickered off the lab goggles as he went. "Okay…." He stopped and pulled up the goggles as he looked over a portion of what appeared to be a large metal ring. He then reached for a small metal panel and placed it over a few wires that were exposed on the side. A soft click was heard as the piece found its place. "I really hope that fixed it….."

As he leaned the project against the wall he heard a whimper behind him. He turned to see a very restless Cujo as he pawed at the door. "Hmm… you gotta go out?" he looked at the clock and gave the pup a nod. "It has been awhile so I guess now's as good a time as any to get some air." Cujo panted happily as he followed his master through the wall.

* * *

><p>"Okay so you wanted to meet Blue Beetle right?" Gar asked Impulse as he stood inside the com center of the cave. He then faced him towards the Zeta tubes as it announced the teen's arrival. "Here you go."<p>

Jaime seemed a bit confused as he looked at Gar with another boy he'd never seen before. "So… is this who you were talking about ese?"

Bart was quick to get up his excitement. "So you're Blue Beetle? Crash!" He then zoom to stand behind his back. Jaime gave him a weird look as he went. "Even more Crash! You're a fan!" He stated as he pointed to the curled up comic book in his hoodie pocket. He pulled it out without asking and started to flip through it. "Oh, this is an old one."

Jaime took it back with an unhappy expression. "What are you talking about? This is the latest issue. It was just released last month."

"Kindred Spirits?" Gar said as he read the cover.

Jaime gave a nod. "I wanted to talk to Danny about it."

Garfield then turned to the hall. "Alright then let's go! He was in his room last time I checked; told me he was working on something important." The three of them then walked together and stopped just in front of Danny's room. Beast Boy knocked. "Hey Danny! You in there?" Silence was his answer as he looked at the door in curiosity. "Maybe he's gone out?"

Before he could say anything more, the door was open and Impulse was looking down the shelves. "Looks like your right BB."

"Hey!" The green teen protested. "You can't just run into someone's room like that." His statement fell on deaf ears as Impulse then started to look at several of the random pieces of tech strewn across the table in the back. Jaime found his interest on a large metal right leaning on the back wall despite the fact he agreed with Gar. The changeling let out a sigh as he followed them in.

"Oh, check this out!" Bart said as he picked up the ring.

"It kinda looks like a techno hula-hoop or something." Garfield noted as he watched Bart stand it up on the ground. When he let go, the ring stayed standing and a low whine was heard. "What the…." Two flaps fell from either side allowing the ring to remain standing and several green lights along the side lit up.

"Uh-oh….. I think you turned, whatever it is, on." Bart took a step back as the whine grew to a higher pitch before a green spark of energy appeared in the center. An energy pulse emanated from the ring as it expanded to be as tall as Jaime and the green energy expanded to match. After the brightness faded the three looked on at the swirl of green energy that sat within the device and Jaime felt a feeling of dread. "No Bueno….. turn it off ese!"

Before Bart could do anything, however, the ring started to shake rather violently and a large creature seemed to shoot out of the center. Beast Boy and Jaime split in order to get out of it's way and it landed in the hallway. The three heroes turned to see the large purple form start to move. "This can't be good." As the creature started to shuffle to its feet it shook its head in agitation. It turned a bared its glowing red eyes on the boys before growling.

It even seemed to grow as it spoke in an angry tone. "WHO….ARE YOU!" It bellowed as it held its arms high.

It roared at the boys before Beast Boy transformed into a gorilla and tackled the creature. "Good idea!" Blu concurred as he activated his armor. He held out his sonic blaster as the creature pressed against the raw might of the green ape. Impulse joined the party as he charged the creature but it thrashed the ape away and right into the speedster. Blu then blasted it, but it only seemed to anger the creature as it roared again

"GO AWAY!" It was quick to swat Blu to the ground and was about to swing down its claws before Impulse got his attention.

"Yo creepo! Over here!" He turned and pat his butt. "Can't catch me!" The large monster didn't think twice about taking the taunt as it turned and dashed for the speedster. It roared as Impulse continued forward in short bursts as to keep the beast interested. It smashed into several objects as it followed madly but it didn't seem to slow. Bart turned and saw it's unimpeded pursuit and gave a lit gulp. "Persistent…"

"I got it!" Blu shouted as he flew up behind it and tried to ram it to the ground.

The creature's eyes glowed with rage as it grabbed him midflight. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" Jaime yelled in distress as he was swung into the wall and then to the ground with the beast's monstrous strength.

With a bit more teasing Bart was able to get it's attention again and led it out into the main living area. "Heads up!" He shouted as to get the team's attention. Nightwing, and Super Boy were both talking as the leader was going over some mission specifics.

The two turned to see the boy being chased down by the large purple monster and instantly jumped into action. "What is that thing!?" Nightwing demanded as Impulse passed him.

"I'm not sure, but it seems pretty mad about something!" Bart responded as he stopped just behind the two older team mates.

The monster stopped just in front of them and looked to be seething with anger before roaring at them. He then swung down his arm as he shouted again. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Super Boy caught it's arm as it came down. "Leave you alone!? Why don't you leave us alone?!" He shouted as he took it and threw the creature at the far wall. The Kryptonian was less than amused as he saw Beast Boy and Blu exit the hall where the beast had come out.

"You get him?" Blu asked as he saw the creature remain unmoving against the wall.

"What's going on!" Nightwing demanded with his arms crossed.

Both Blu and Gar traded sheepish expressions before looking back at Impulse. "Well we were trying to find Danny, but when he wasn't in his room we kinda…."

"You went snooping." Super Boy continued for the green teen. The Krypyonian gave him an angry glance causing Bart to feel guilty. "Actually I'm the one who touched the weird metal ring it popped out of alright."

"We'll talk about this after we take care of this thing." Said Nightwing as he took back his defensive stance. The purple monster seemed to be getting up and it looked even madder than before. As soon as it regained its footing it charged at the Kryptonian, and as it roared it seemed to grow even bigger. This time it pushed Super Boy back upon impact as Conner grappled with its claws.

Nightwing jumped in next but he found out quickly that his eskrima stick could do little. He kept passing right through the creature much to his own frustration. "I think this thing is a ghost!" He shouted as he watched the grappling match between the two continue.

"That would make sense considering it came out of that weird portal thing." Beast Boy added in.

"The thing he shouldn't have messed with." Said Blu as he pointed to Impulse.

"How was I supposed to know?" Questioned the speedster in his defense.

"Not the time!" Super Boy grunted out as he was pushed back further. He swung to the side and caused the creature to fall but it quickly recovered and took a swipe at the kryptonian. "We need a plan. So far Super Boy seems to be the only one who can touch this thing."

"Well I could touch it at first, but when it started chasing Impulse I couldn't anymore." Beast Boy explain as he scratched at his head.

"What we need is Danny. He'd know exactly what to do with it." Blu informed as he stood by Nightwing ready to defend himself.

"You rang?" Came a voice from behind them. Danny stood floating and wearing an angry expression. "You can tell me where it came from after I take care of it." He then flew down and charged at the creature. It was no surprise that he was able to touch it and push it back with little effort.

He then blasted it back with his ghost ray and it cried out in pain. "NO! STOP IT!"

It glared at Danny as he floated in front of it with his hands lit up with green energy. "Stop? You're the one rampaging here."

The creature glared harder as it took a single step back. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Danny raised a brow as let the glow fade from his palms. "Alright, but you're going to have to calm down." He said as he made a slow approach. The opposing ghost bared its fangs in response. "It's alright. I don't want to hurt you. If you just calm down, I can get you back." All he got in response was a growl as the creature tensed at his approach.

"Why are you even trying to reason with it?" Super Boy asked as he watched with his arms crossed.

Danny held a finger up in his direction. "Just trust me alright. I know what I'm doing."

As he continued his slow approach the ghost began to grow anxious and charged at Danny. "NO!"

Danny was quick to blast him back and then held him to the floor on his back. "I want to help you, but you have to calm down! I don't want to hurt you but I will if you keep this up!" After a moment the ghost erratic panting calmed and Danny let go. "Better?" He questioned as he floated up. The purple creature sat up and let out a calming breath which was followed by him shrinking in size. "There you go." Danny said in approval as the creature continued to shrink smaller.

Eventually his skin turned blue and the horns dissolved in the head of a small boy. He let out a few sniffles as he rubbed his eye's while still keeping one on the halfa. The others looked on in astonishment at the small boy that was once a monster. Super Boy seemed the most surprised as his anger faded and his arms fell to his side. Danny held out his hand to the boy. "Now just come with me alright?" The ghost gave his hand a questioning look before looking back up at the halfa. After some slight hesitation at first he decided to take the hand and Danny stood up with the boy floating to keep in reach of his hand. Danny let out a sigh as he turned to the other team members. "I'm going to take him back okay? It should only take a few minutes."

* * *

><p>"So which one of you turned it on?" The halfa asked as he stood before the rest of the team. He wore a stern expression as his eyes fell on the three youngest. After some reluctance, Bart lifted his hand. "Sorry…." Danny let out a sigh at the apology and then uncrossed his arms. "You're alright? Nothing happened?... aside from the ghost that is?"<p>

Beast Boy shook his head. "No I think that was all….. why?"

"Well, you guys were playing with fire by turning on an interdimensional portal like that. You have to very careful during the initial activation. You should consider yourself lucky it didn't explode or something." He then re-crossed his arm as he gave them a stern expression. "I trust you guys are smart enough not to get curious again. Right?" He looked at Impulse near the end and they all nodded in response. "Good."

"What were you doing building something like that anyway?" Super Boy asked with a standard agitated expression.

"Well, I need access to the Ghost Zone, so I can keep tabs there."

"That thing could have killed someone!" Super Boy reiterated with a reprimanding tone.

Danny raised a brow in curiosity. "Who the kid? What are you talking about? He probably only charged you because he was scared of you, that's all." He then looked over to the three teens. "Chances are, these three somehow picked a fight to begin with. Am I right to say that one of you threw the first punch?"

The three boys looked between each other before they came to a consensus. "Now that I think about it…. Beast Boy tackled it before it actually did anything." Impulse pointed out.

Gar shrugged. "Yeah, but it looked like it was about to attack or something. What else was I supposed to do."

Danny waved it off. "It's fine Gar, that's a common mistake. You'll find that a lot of ghost out there are more bark than bite anyway. You're pretty lucky to get that little guy instead of one that would have eaten you or something. You'd probably feel confused and angry if you found yourself suddenly displaced like that"

Super Boy still seemed a bit mad about it but Nightwing stepped in to calm the tension. "It was contained, and that's what matters. Let's just try not to do it again." He stated as he looked over to the younger heroes.

"Yeah, Ghost is gone, everyone's fine, its all crash." "Well it would have been even more crash if you not snooped in the first place." A phone suddenly started ringing and Danny floated up. "Sorry, that's me." He answered as he phased through the roof for more privacy. "Tuck?"

"_Dude have you checked in with Sam!?"_

Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I called her half a dozen times and got her voicemail every time." Tucker remain quiet for a moment causing Danny to feel uneasy. "Tuck? What's wrong?" He asked in a critical tone.

"_It's Sam….. her parents just declared her missing."_

* * *

><p><strong>Well there you have it. I'm a bit annoyed by the last scenes with Impulse, Blu and Gar but I gave it my best and the ghost attack got done like I wanted. Do any of you recognize the ghost by any chance? He's from the DP universe. Anyway, so we got some major info this time around. Both Tucker and Sam are alive. (This was decided after ch. 3) I found it to be better for the flow of the story in the long run. Sorry if Impulse seemed strange at the end, but I'm still working on writing him so bare with me. <strong>

**As always, feedback is loved. Also, if you see any mistakes or plot issues please let me know!=^-^=**


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